After a two hour flight and another four behind the wheel of a rented jeep, Jack made his way through the dense jungles of South America. His story began a week ago as his smarter half Dr. Suars, located an anomaly on his computer. Since the beginning of their working together, he created a program that followed the moves and actions around the world through satellite feeds and an A.I. he created himself. But in this case he received an unrecognizable energy reading, coming from an abandoned temple in the heart of South America. It’s readings were off the chart and unlike any scientific source known to mankind. That alone was enough to peek his interest, for his entire reason to be was to discover the unknown, but it was what he read next that made him determined to take a course of action. In less than twenty four hours after the anomaly, Dr. Suars received readings of a small military army setting up camp outside the temple in question, with both mining and abstracting equipment. With the best of intentions he gave Jack the green light to fly to South America, and investigate with the basic goal to discover what is giving off the energy readings, and to determine whether it is a threat or not. But above all, if the source is determined a threat, he was to make sure that it did not fall into the wrong hands.
Riding in a jeep that felt every bump in the road, Jack checked in through his ear piece, to report on his status. “Yo Doc,” he shouted in a jovial way as he looked down upon his I phone, “According to this map thing you gave me I’m an hour away from reaching the site.” In response the doctor laughed back, “Glad to know your not out there waisting the foundations money.” He then took a more serious tone as he conveyed his concern for Jack and the mission, “Okay, you know what to do next. Ditch the jeep and make your way in on foot, and remember to remove your ear piece. From my point of view the group outside the temple has a class A5 radio detector and would pick up our communications in a heart beat. No matter how many times I change the frequency.” He tries to hide his genuine concern for his friend, and after an off pitch in his tone he continues, “So from this point on you are on your own. But remember if it comes down to life and death, call me!” After what seemed an awkward moment of silence Jack answered back in a warm hearted manner, “Don’t worry Doc, I’ll be just fine. Just remember to keep a good bottle of Scotch ready for me when I get back!”
As the sun slowly set over the horizon, Jack made his way in on foot, running around a mile a minute, without the use of his mechanical arms. That way he would make less noise. Within minutes, he arrived on the scene, hidden safely behind a group of trees, looking out across the opening at the temple’s resting place. Still holding up well over the centuries, the temple looked nothing like he expected, with stone walls and a endless number of stairs leading to it’s main entrance. However, there on the outside, waiting at the base of the stairs was a small army of men, dressed in a military uniform he could not recognize. He could clearly hear the sounds of a leading officer give orders, but again in a language he could not understand. All Jack could tell was, the soldiers outside had one and only one order, not to let anyone enter, as another troop, lead by their scientist were already heading inside. “Oh, this is just great,” Jack mumbled under his breath as he placed his face in his palm. “This looks like something out of Indiana Jones.” But before he could take in a breath to calm his nerves, he could hear the roar of a helicopter circling above, with a spot light shining down to survey the area. All Jack could hope, was that the trees around him were enough to shelter him so as not to be seen, and that he could come up with a plan to get inside that temple, alive!
Mister Surreal, the Sorcerer Supreme, currently had his magic wielding hands full with an investigation that he started working on not to long ago. It was one that dealt with the matter of finding lost artifacts that were great of value to the magical and non-magical alike. He had his nose deeply buried within the pages of one of the books in his library. This one in particular was about irregular magical occurrences. It was a mythology book based on the legends of the knights and wizards of old. And it's like they say, legends are forgotten history.
The reason why he was looking through these books was because he recently felt a disturbance in the magic realm. He began to look into the origin of this disturbance as wells as it's location. "Something here seems to be associated with what I am looking for.", he thought to himself as he peered down onto one page it the book. He believed that he had found what he was looking for, the a clue behind this mystery. He closed his eyes and meditated as he began to visualize the area that he needed to go to. Once he had found it, he opened a portal directly there.
As he stepped through to the new location, he found himself in a tropical environment. He could hear the sound of helicopters in near proximity, so he quickly casted a spell of concealment over himself and became invisible. While all this was happening under the cover of darkness, he didn't want to take his chances. As he moved around, he began notice the military vehicles that moved about the environment. He also saw a base that was set up. He moved quickly and quietly as he got closer to what seemed to be their main base.
The women and men in uniforms that went along the area were hard at work with whatever it was that they were trying to achieve. Mister Surreal concluded that they must have detected an anomaly in this area, which was the same one that he was looking for. Why else would these people be here? But as he figured that out he noticed a familiar face, "Jack!", he thought to himself. He then made himself visible again as he neared his friend. "Jack, it's me!," he whispered loud enough for him to here.
Regretfully, Jack looked out across the field, counting the number of soldiers blocking the entrance and sighed. He thought about using a frontal attack with the aid of his mechanical arms, but with no idea how many soldiers were inside, it seemed unwise at this time. So with a heavy head he turned away, and leaned against a tree mumbling, “This is going to be S0ooooo much harder than I thought.” Suddenly, there was a twinkling of light in front of him, and from out of nowhere his magical, mystical friend, Mister Surreal appeared before him, in all his glory. With a simple "Jack, it's me!," he introduced himself, expecting a warm greeting from a friend, but instead Jack pulled back, clinched his chest and shouted, “Wait? What? Who’s There?” But after a second or two to gather his wits, he looked up to his friend and passively aggressively barked, “How many times have I told you not to do that!?! You know I hate it when you just appear out of nowhere. It just ain’t natural.” Slowly he rose back to his feet, trying to calm his nerves, then finally he greets his friend in a proper manner. “Still its good to see you again pal. But what brings you out here to this place?” But before the Sorcerer Supreme could answer back, Jack unfortunately figured it out!
Throwing a bit of a tantrum, Jack flails his human arms around shouting quietly, “Oh no no no no no! Don’t tell me that the energy source inside is ‘Magical’! You know that magic stuff gets under my skin.” He slowly begins to calm down but continues to rant, “I should have known it! When Doc said he couldn’t recognize the source, I should have known it!” Suddenly from above the helicopter made a close pass over, missing the two heroes by inches, reminding Jack of his mission at hand, and now more than ever, the importance of retrieving the magical item inside. Getting his head back into the game, he immediately takes charge and begins telling his friend his half @ss plan to get inside. Sounding redundant he goes into great detail, “First we’ll create a distraction by tossing a rock just a few feet away from the group, and hope that two and only two soldiers go to investigate. Then we’ll over power them and take their uniforms.” Caught up in the moment he continues to ramble on with no clue as to how idiotic he sounds. “Then, dressed as soldiers we’ll casually walk by the rest of them, me being your superior. Naturally we’ll have to keep our heads down as not to be seen. but as long as you keep nodding as if I’m saying something important, we may have a chance?!?” Finally it dawned on him who he was with and what exactly he could do, and after a low sounding moan, he looks over to his magical friend, and humbly ask, already knowing the answer, “or maybe you could just turn us invisible and, (he coughs from embarrassment)we just walk right pass them?!?”
Matthew patiently listened as Jack went on rambling about his poorly conceived excuse of a plan. Why he was polite enough to let him continue to talk about his plan without being interrupted, he was internally shaking his head at the nonsense that he was hearing. When Jack had finished speaking, he was going to tell him exactly what he thought of his plan. But Jack spoke up before he could; "Or maybe you could just turn us invisible and we just walk right pass them?!?”, Jack said with some embarrassment.
"I think that's better idea.", Matthew said with a genuine tone of voice. He began to cast the spell on himself and Jack subtlety and with haste. There were many soldiers taking survey of the immediate area and if they saw a little magical light show going, both of the heroes would need to abandon the mission. "I understand that you're not exactly keen in indulging in the magical arts...", he said as he performed the spell. "But this is quite necessary for the both of us.", he said.
Bu the time that he said that, he was able to transfer the spell to Jack so that they may both go around undetected. "The spell here is designed in such a way that only you and I will be able to see eachother.", he said as he peared at Jack's light transcending form. Both of them were untraceable to the eye of the average person, but they could be picked up by other magic users or people skilled enough to be able to identify their physical being.
Just then, one of the search lights from a helicopter above them swept over the area that the two were standing at. Jack seemed to be somewhat unnerved the moment that happened. Despite going from an angle were they would have been spotted immediately, it went on as if it had seen nothing. The two wouldn't have to worry about anything like that as long as they were in this form. "As I said, this something that is necessary for both of us."
Reluctantly Jack agreed to let his friend cast his spell of invisibility on him, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. With a simple gesture from the magician's hand Jack felt an odd sensation wash over his body. It was like thousands of tiny feathers brushed against his skin all at once, and with each one a feeling of enlightenment. But just as soon as it began, the feeling past and Jack felt like he was back to his normal self. Still being a little out of the loop he asked his partner, “Are you sure the spell worked? Cause I can still see me.” Naturally Matthew responded back in kind, "The spell here is designed in such a way that only you and I will be able to see each other." But the fact was Jack still doubted him, and began waving his hand in front of his face hoping for some sign of invisibility. In the end he turned back to Matthew, and was seconds away from telling him that the spell failed, when the helicopter above shone it’s spot light right on them. Immediately, Jack froze in his tracks hoping that the copter missed him, but when the light from the spotlight seemingly shone through, with no signs of a shadow, he began believing in the power of his friend’s spell. With a quick, “i um guess I’m um ready,” he slowly stepped out from the safety of the trees and proceeded to make his way forward. His every step was filled with nervousness, like a mouse walking by a sleeping cat, but slowly and surely he crept pass the guards walking right through the center of them. But with each step forward he kept one eye on Matthew just to make sure he was safe as well.
After what seemed an endless step of stairs, they arrive at the temples entrance where he found a team of scientist and archaeologists standing there still trying to get in. The problem was, at the entrance was a newly formed stone wall, built from the same material as the temple stone, but much harder and stronger. It also appeared freshly made as there was no layer of dirt or debris upon it. It was, as if it had somehow magically just appeared from out of nowhere. To make it worse any physical attempt to break it down failed miserably. The only good part was that some of the men standing outside the door were speaking English. Then without warning the soldiers at the temples base began shouting out something of importance, to which one of the English speaking scientist responded, “Footprints, Where?” As all of the scientist and archaeologists began racing down to investigate, Jack foolishly informed Matthew, “Darn it! I didn’t even think of it. But when we walked in, we left footprints behind us!” By now the entire army below were investigating as the scientist were breaking out highly advanced equipment, that Jack had never seen before. However, should Mister Surreal turn to investigate, he would no doubt surmise, they were mens closest attempt to create magical counter parts. One of which being a way to see the invisible.
Unaware of the full danger he was in, Jack hastily remarked, “We need to move fast and open this door, before those scientists come back!” He then began looking up and down the door, searching for any sign of a door nob, but instead all he found was some weird styled hieroglyphics etched upon it, somewhere on the far right side. Raising his sunglasses to the top of his head for a better look, he comments, “Matthew take a look at this, ” as he leans in. Upon closer inspection, the carvings represent a giant dragon, flying over a moon, with four smaller images resting below. The first was a dragons tail, followed by a dragon’s tooth, then a dragon’s claw and finally a dragon’s wing. Despite the fact Jack was not the brightest bulb in the bunch, he quickly came to the conclusion, “It must have something to do with magic!” He then steps aside so that his friend Matthew could get a better look, as he asks, “You’re the Sorcerer Supreme, if anyone could decipher this lock it would be you?!?” Meanwhile at the base of the temple, the soldiers were breaking out sidearms, that they believed would aid them in a fight against any common Sorcerer.
Being the Sorcerer Supreme, Matthew was of course somewhat familiar with the strange symbols in front of the pair. While the order and the type of engravings were seemingly foreign even to himself, Matthew definitely recognized them. "I remember seeing something along these lines in one of the books that I have been reading recently. This has something to do with ancient artifacts and treasures of lost ancient civilizations.", the magic user whispered as he partially explained the meaning behind what the two were looking at.
Just then, the sorcerer was startled by the the voice of one of the superior officers from the base of the temple. He began issuing out orders to his men about going over every inch of the area until they find whoever had slipped into their base. More guards began to assemble their weapons that would prove a threat to both heroes. Jack and Mathew would need to pick up the pace if they wanted to make it out of this one. "We need to hurry, those men will be up here in no time. And if they find us here, this entire mission will collapse." Mathew said with great urgency.
He quickly went back to attempting to decipher the meaning behind the ancient symbols. He could remember something about how the images referred to the nature of the temple and a way of navigating through it. Mathew began to analyze the very first image among the ordered of the carvings: the dragon tail. He pressed himself to figure out what this meant for them and their current situation, but he was stuck. "Come on! What is-I got it!", he exclaimed in hush tone of voice. "Each image tells us how to navigate the temple, the dragon 'tail' refers to a tale as in a story. In one story that I read, a type of key was used to enter a dragons chamber. We don't have one, but I can make one.", he said with great enthusiasm.
Mathew noticed a small lump of stone in the corner of the doorway, this would definitely help their cause. He discretely walked over to the stone in order to make sure that he wouldn't alarm any of the guards searching for the intruders. He then picked up the stone as he began to quickly scurry back to his original postion at the large entrance. He looked over his shoulder to see if anyone had noticed what was going on. Even though they were invisible, their was still the chance of one of those soldiers seeing a rock levitate across the entrance of the temple.
Once he saw that no one had seen anything that would lead them to go up the steps, he went to work. He began using his magic to carve and shape the stone in such a way that was in the likeness of tail image of the tail. He heard the men in the back ground searching for them begin to make their way near the steps of the temple. He quickly finished up the carving and went on to make use of it. "I've got it. All we need to do now his find the key hole to the door.", he said. Just then, the sound of heavy boots could be heard coming up the steps of the temple.
He sorcerer fumbled to find a way inside of the temple. After a few moments of swift searching on the part of both Jack and Mathew, they were able to find the hole of which the key would unlock the doors of the temple. Mathew gave the key to Jack who's arms with their superior strength would aid them here. Jack took the key, and with one mighty turn, he was able to unlock the door to the entrance. The two quickly made their way inside as they could practicality feel the breath of the soldiers on their backs. As Matthew used a spell to seal the door, soldiers could be heard outside still looking for them.
Jack nodded along in agreement to everything Matthew said, with no idea what he meant. To him it was all Greek mixed with a bit of Russian. Even as the soldiers were making their way up the inclining stairs, he pretended to understand, through subtle “Uh hums!” and an occasional,“I see!” But it wasn’t until Matthew declared, "Each image tells us how to navigate the temple, the claws and the 'tail' refers to a tale as in a story. In one story that I read, a type of key was used to enter a dragons chamber. We don't have one, but I can make one," that he had a clue to what was going on! With a hearty, “alright lets see you make one!” Jack stepped back giving the magician some room, expecting him to pull a key out of thin air, but instead watched in amazement as he conjured a spell to carve and shape a stone he picked up off the ground, in such a way that it morphed into the likeness of a Dragon's tail, just like the one carved into the temples door. By now the sounds of the soldiers were even closer, as well as Jack’s impatience, but with all the chaos going on around them, Mister Surreal kept a cool head. As his newly formed key came in to a completed creation he looked around while muttering, “All we need to do now is find the key hole to the door.”
Caught in a rush of adrenaline, Jack and Matthew began franticly looking for any signs of a key hole, with the soldiers moving in even closer. Suddenly a bright light shone from the tail of the Dragon carved into the wall, while giving off an odd and eerie sound. Almost as if calling the key to itself. Immediately Matthew handed the key over to Jack, who almost in a trance liked state raised the key to the Dragon's tail. At the moment of contact, the key became one with the Dragon, that immediately came to life. The Dragon then spun around on the wall as if chasing its tail, spinning around faster and faster until he became nothing more than a small blur. It was then the door began to shimmer in a glow of light, as its thick mass began fading in and out of sight. Within seconds the door was no more, allowing both Jack and Matthew to freely enter the temple, while at the same time a row of torches along the wall lit in unison, to light their path inside.
By now the soldiers had reached the top of the steps and although they could not see the heroes inside, they gasped in glee at the sight of the temple’s door wide open. In their own foreign language, the leading officer ordered his men to charge forward, with their guns at the ready, but were stopped seconds away from entering. For at that moment Mister Surreal casted another spell forming a new stone wall to take the place of the old, and like a force of nature it blocked the soldiers path. “Now that was impressive,” Jack implied while giving the magician a soft clapping of his hands, “I just hope that will hold them off long enough for us to find the energy source?” With no time to waste, he pulled his I phone from his pocket, locating the energy source as a ping on it’s screen. Following the path given off by the phone, he lead his friend through a maze of tunnels throughout the temple until finally reaching the suppose location of the energy source. But oddly enough they stood outside of what appeared to be a simple vase room, filled wall to wall with rare but not impressive clay pots. “I don’t get it?!?!” Jack declared, “The gizmo says the energy source is in there!”
Ignoring all signs of danger and perhaps the sage advice of his friend Matthew, Jack boldly stepped into the vase room and was immediately wisped away to another location. He was now inside a room with no doors filled with golden trinkets and the bones of hundreds of men. In the middle of the room stood an ivory pedestal with an old and ancient artifact resembling a time piece resting on top. From above a single ray of light shone down upon it, illuminating the artifact while lighting the whole chamber. As far as Jack could tell there was no way in or out of the room and at this time Matthew was nowhere to be seen. Like a fool he shouted, “Matthew where are you? Can you hear me?” only to hear his voice echo off every wall. Suddenly he heard the sound of something, BIG, moving around in one of the corners, slowly making its way forward with a slithering sound as it moved across the piles of gold coins in its way. Before Jack knew it, he was face to face with a fifteen foot tall baby red Dragon, looking at him like he was his next meal. Again Jack yelled, “Oh Matthew where are you!?!?” as he retreated to the safety of the nearest wall. Although Jack felt he was capable of taking on the beast, he felt in his heart it was a task better suited to the Sorcerer Supreme, and as such he refrained from attacking, unless it became necessary.
Matthew was slightly surprised by what had happened to his friend, though he got over it as quickly as you would expect. He after a few moments, he could sense that someone was calling for his aid, no doubt it was Jack. He tried to create a portal with the flick of the wrist to Jack's location, but was faced with result of merely waving his hand around. For some reason he had lost his ability to simply create portals to different locations. "Seeing as how this place is no normal temple, it was likely imbued with a magical defense that forces me to venture forth.", he thought to himself.
The two explores would need to play the games and pass the trails of this temple if they ever wished to see the light of day. Matthew figured that while he couldn't currently reach his friend, he could still communicate with him. He closed his eyes and sent a telepathic message to Jack. "Jack, I promise that I will find you as soon as I can. But for now, we will have to complete these puzzles by ourselves. This whole place is a puzzle and the answers are always in the question. I'll see you later.", he said. as he faced his own challenge.
He then looked back at his own puzzle and began to examine what needed to do. He looked into the room that Jack had just stepped into and was transported to a different location. He looked at the floor and saw that Jack had stepped on a gold tile which was still sunken in. Matthew levitated across the room in order to make sure that he did not set off other traps. He looked around and saw nothing but a large assortment of vases on different stands. He levitated to the point in the room where the floor simply a light tan color.
The vases were all of different colors and had different designs of one another. Some were shades of red, others green, others blue. This would be a truly maddening game for anyone to play. If all it took for Jack to end up in a different room was to step on one of the tiles on the floor, imagine what grabbing a certain one or the vases might do to you. He analyzed each one closely to see if he could pick and particular patterns or details. He went around each one with great care in order to make sure that there was no clue that he was skimming over.
He was starting to become frustrated with the difficulty of the task, but he tried to remain calm. When he felt almost like giving up, he noticed a detail that would help him figure out how to solve the puzzle. Taking a step back, he noticed the placment of all the different stands that the vases rested on, there was something particular about it. He hovered upwards so that he could get a better view of the room. He saw that they formed an arch that spread across the full length of the room, rather than being in lined up rows.
"That's it, a rainbow.", he thought as he figured out what he should do. He then used his telekinesis to rearrange the placement of the vases so that from a bird's eye view, they would resemble a rainbow. After he was finished, the stands that the vases lay on began to lower into the floor to the point where they all had been sunken in. The wall began to open as doors appeared and allowed passage out of the room. After walking out, the wall immediately returned to its rightful place.
Walking down one corridor, he saw what seemed to be some doors that he could pass through. Seeing if he could open them, he pushed the doors and found himself in a large room filled with golden treasures. They glistened brightly against one another as they filled the room with a golden aura. But he also noticed a large pile of bones that belonged to several people. Most notably, he saw Jack and an enormous dragon nearby. "Jack!", he exclaimed.
The Dragon moved like a snake, slithering forward as it closed in. It’s claws digging into the gold at it’s feet as it’s tail followed behind. Its eyes were dark red with a yellow slit down the middle and from its breath flowed a puff of smoke. With every step it took Jack took two back, eventually trapping himself in a corner. Again he shouted, “Oh Matthew, where ever you are, now would be a good time to appear!” Unfortunately all his screams seemed to do were anger the Dragon some more, forcing the beast to let out a primal yell of its own. But being the pacifist he is, Jack didn’t wish the beast any harm, but when placed in a life or death situation, he was forced to defend himself. With a thought, he called forth Moe, his upper right mechanical arm and with it’s claws open wide he raised it like a blunt weapon. Then in an attempt to force the Dragon back, he sent it flying forward at it’s chest like a giant steel battering ram.
The Dragon, however, stood unflinching, with its eyes piercing into Jack’s soul. With but a simple wave of it’s massive arm, it easily swatted Jacks away as if it was nothing, sending the mechanical arm flailing wildly across the room until he recoiled the arm back inside. Again the Dragon roared in anger, with enough force to blow Jack’s hair wild, even though several feet away. With little options left Jack feared he would need to use deadly force if he wished to survive, but that little voice in the back of his head spoke other wise. By now the Dragon was on top of him, with its mouth gapping wide and a devilish look in its eyes. Hoping to stall for time before letting loose with a shock wave of crippling electricity, Jack noticed a medieval knights shield resting a few yards away, and with a thought he sent forth Larry, his upper left mechanical arm outwards to grasp it and pull it towards him. At the moment it was in the grasp of his mortal hand, he held it up between them, standing in a firm but defensive stance.
Suddenly the mighty Dragon looked surprised, with an almost impressed look upon its face, nodding as if Jack had done something right. At the same moment, a magical door appeared from nowhere and as it opened wide the great Mister Surreal stumbled into the mix shouting "Jack!" But just as the door appeared, it vanished away into nothing, leaving Jack and Matthew alone with a Red Baby Dragon. But just as Jack turned to address his friend, he was reminded of what Matthew said earlier about Dragons at the temples door. But due to the fact he wasn’t paying attention at the time, naturally he remembered it all wrong. With a deep solemn voice he informed Matthew, “Matt stay back! I’m about to do something either really brave or really stupid!” Then in a huge display of peace, he dropped the shield to the ground while recoiling his mechanical arms back inside. Placing everything on a huge bet he informed Matthew, “Its like you said before at the door, its all about the story and the Dragon and the tale it tales..”oblivious to the fact he misunderstood everything the Sorceress said. “Were not suppose to fight the Dragon....” he raises his two human arms out in a sign of friendship, “...we’re suppose to talk to him and learn it’s tale!”
Immediately, the Dragon pulled back with a pleased expression of delight upon it’s face. With a soulful laugh, it looks down upon the two heroes and says, “Well done mortal beings. You have chosen wisely with your deeds.” Realizing that Mister Surreal was a master of the mystic arts, he informs him, “Your friend here has shown a rare trait in your species. I did not expect it, or at least not from him.” He then turns back to address Jack, “And please be aware mortal, had you chosen to fight me, I would have killed you.....quite easily!” Now with a new peaceful feeling in the room, the Dragon goes on to explain to them both, “For many centuries mortals much like yourselves have been searching for the artifact,” he points to the time piece resting in the middle of the room, “and all have chosen to fight rather than talk. It is as if none of you knew that Dragons are wise!” Slowly he settles back into his corner, while smiling at the two, “Because of your good deeds, the artifact is yours.” he then chuckles as only a Dragon could do, “.....if you are worthy enough to lift it!”
As the Dragon disappears back into the shadows from whence he came, Jack couldn’t help but feel a bit cocky. With a bit a swag in his step he move closer to the time piece while informing his friend, “Well this shouldn’t be to hard. After all I was the one to show the Dragon respect.” In the background you could hear the Dragon laughing almost to the point of hilarity as Jack wraps his hands around the clock. With a hefty tug he heaves up, but to no avail as the piece didn’t even budge. Instead the piece remained motionless, glued to the ivory pedestal. “I um, need a better grip,” Jack explained to Matthew while trying not to look foolish, “I’ll get it free this time.” With the aide of all four of his mechanical arms he lifts again, grunting and moaning all the way. But once again the time piece did not move, not even an inch, in fact this time it felt heavier than before. Realizing he was out of his element, he humbly stepped aside saying, “I get the feeling this is some magical thing, I just don’t have what it takes.” With no other idea on how to retrieve the artifact, he ushers Matthew forward. Betting that if anyone had what it took to claim the prize it was him. “I got faith in you sport. If there is anyone worthy enough..........it would be you!”
Matthew slowly approached the clock as he readied himself for this task. He wondered what the exact words of the dragon meant, "Worthy enough to lift it?", he thought. "But what does 'worthy' mean?", he continued. The worthiness of someone being what allows them to lift an object was not something that was new by any means. It was like the countless retellings of Arthur taking the sword Excalibur out of the stone and becoming king of England. Or Thor Odinson wielding the hammer Mjolnir that could only be wielded by whoever was worthy.
As he stepped in front of the pedestal on which the timepiece lay, he settled his mind and calmed his nerves. He looked down and studied the quality of the clock before him. It was an extremely beautiful object that seemed to outclass all of the treasures that made of the sea of gold. It had extraordinarily well carved wooden exterior lined perfectly placed fragments of silver. It had a light golden face with dark golden hands that were still in place. He was amazed by how well crafted this artifact was, whoever made it was certainly gifted.
He placed his hands on the curved metal bars that were on the sides of the clock. He looked over at Jack who was staring back at him with great anticipation in his eyes. After one long sigh of breath, he clenched his hands and attempted to lift the object from it's pedestal. Unfortunately, he made no more progress than this eight limbed friend did. He tried again, pulling it up with as much strength as he could muster, it didn't budge. He looks back at Jack who seemed to be disappointed with the less than preferred results. Mathew thought about what he should do.
"Why don't I try to cast a spell on it? It may just work depending on which one I use.", he said looking to his friend to see if he approved of the idea. He simply shrugged in a way that said "Sure, why not". He went back over to it and began a spell that would switch the elemental properties of it with the elemental properties of air in the room. He went along with the hand gestures and mind set needed. While he knew that the chances of it working were minuscule, he realized that they didn't have many options. After the spell was completed, he gotten ready for another try. "Here goes nothing.", he said as he went to raise it yet again. It didn't move in the slightest as he expected it to.
Matthew was all out of ideas, neither of them could seem to be able to pick it up and magic wasn't having any affect on the object. He knew that them being stuck there until they died of oxygen deprivation was a very real possibility. He sat there thinking of anything that could work. Then he thought of what the dragon had said, "Because of your good deeds, the artifact is yours." After a few moments of thinking, he believed that he got it. "Deeds, that's it! We have been doing this all wrong, by deeds, the dragon was talking to both of us. We need to lift it together!", he exclaimed.
After hearing that, Jack's face lit up with great joy. It would seem that Matthew had figured out the final puzzle. Jack quickly went over to him so that they could test out this theory. He took one handle in Moe's claw and clamped onto it with full strength. Matthew went back to hold onto the timepiece as well. "On my mark. Three. Two. One!", he yelled as the two heaved with all of their strength.
As pulled as hard as they could, the artifact slowly lifted off of the pedestal. "It's working!", Matthew said as went on lifting. After a few more pulls, the object was completely suspended in the air between the two of them. Just then, it began to ominously glow a misty colourful aura. They tried to put it down, but their grip wouldn't let up, the dragon could be heard in the background laughing at the scene.
Jack stood with anticipation, waiting for Matthew to easily lift the time piece. Already he was imagining his friend holding it over his head with some magic glow around it. But at the moment his friend yanked up, nothing happened. Immediately Jack’s jaw hit the floor as he mumbled, “Wait, That wasn’t suppose to happened! I was sure you would be the one to lift it,” as a wave of doubt crossed his mind. But one never to give up, the mystical Mister Surreal recomposed himself, and moved in closer for a second try. This time however he felt it needed a more mystical touch and as such he remarked, "Why don't I try to cast a spell on it? It may just work depending on which one I use." Naturally Jack agreed, tossing him a sign of approval, while at the same time taking a few steps back for safety. For he had no idea what was going to happen next, and if something was to go wrong he wanted to be far away. Again Mathew prepared to lift it, this time with a hearty, "Here goes nothing." but again nothing happened, despite the spell he casted that would switch the elemental properties of the time piece. Reluctantly Jack moved in close to support his friend, commenting, “you did your best, that’s all that matters,” as he gently placed his hand on his friends shoulder.
Surprisingly though, Mathew did not seem disappointed in his failure, but rather intrigued by the mystery. Mentally going over all the options in his head,mixed with everything he had learned so far, he proudly puts two and two together exclaiming, "Deeds, that's it! We have been doing this all wrong, by deeds, the dragon was talking to both of us. We need to lift it together!" Trying hard to keep a brave face when thrown into the middle of a world he slightly feared, but more importantly didn’t understand, Jack quickly agreed, with no idea what he was suppose to do. Luckily Matthew took the lead, hinting that Jack should grasp the time piece with one of his mechanical arms, and with a thought, Jack agreed. Immediately he shot out Moe, his upper right mechanical arm, and with it’s three metallic claws, it gently grasped one side of the clock. At the same time Matthew wrapped his hands around the other side, and with a quick, "On my mark. Three. Two. One!" they lifted up! In the background they could hear the Dragon praising them with a “You have chosen well!” as the magical artifact slowly lifted up from off the pedestal.
Now levitating in the air, Matthew shouted, "It's working!" to which Jack could only reply, “Now what do we do?” as the clock began to glow with an ominously misty colorful aura. Once again Jack asked, “Now what do we do?” with the emphasis on the fact that the clock was glowing brighter. Immediately Jack commanded his arm Moe to let go, only to learn it could not. For some mystical reason the harder he fought to let go of the artifact, the tighter his grip would cling. This time in the background the Dragon was laughing as Jacks discomfort grew, and just as Jack was about to yell, “Matt I don’t like this,” he could feel his body breaking down into smaller, minuscule particles. Then like a wave of sand in the wind, the particles were pulled in one by one as the clock began spinning around. Soon the only light in the room was the clock as everything else went dark. With each spin time and space was being bent or in this case twisted, as the heroes were both being sucked into an anomaly.
Seconds later, back into another world of reality, the clock stopped its spinning, throwing Jack clear across the room. Immediately the clock fell to the ground undamaged as its glow quickly diminished. “Matt, are you okay?” Jack shouted as he slowly rose to his feet, then patted himself down to see if he was still whole, “What the Hell just happened?” But as the two heroes reunited together, they could not help but notice that they were no longer in a Dragon's cave or a Temple room. They now stood inside a banquette hall, in some ancient castle. Judging from the tapestries along the walls, Jack suggested, “Looks like we’re in England or something,” as he carefully walked around the room inspecting the place. But being the rather simplistic individual he is, he dismissed the bizarre and got back to the facts he knew. Moving towards the clock now resting upon a long stretched out table in the middle of the room, he nonchalantly remarks, “Well it looked like the clock survived, and since that’s what we came here for, I say we pack it up and get the Hell out of here!” When suddenly a door opens wide, and a young man dressed like a squire back in the days of ‘Ye Olde Knighthood' barged in shouting “Me lords, they be intruders here!” Immediately the kid turned back, running away until more could arrive, leaving Matthew and Jack to contemplate their next move. But despite whatever Matthew was thinking, Jack felt it was important to say, “Either that kid is way into Renaissance fair, or something really bad has happened.”
Mathew straightened his clothes as he dusted himself off after realizing that they were at their most recent trip to a foreign location. "I believe it is the latter.", he said as he responded to what his friend had stated. He then began to look around the large room that there were standing in the middle of to see if his friends other statement was as accurate as the previous one. There were many paintings on the walls that had depictions of different people dressed in expansive looking clothing filled with rich different colors. Similar to his own attire.
As he went on looking, he saw a large table with many delicious treats and dishes that could make anyone who looked at them drool. He could even feel his own saliva glands begin moisten at the sight of all of those goodies lying only a few feet away from them. He then herd his stomach rumble in a rather unexpected and humorous way that he has not herd before. Jack looked over at him with an inquiring expression on his face. "Excuse me. I haven't eaten in a while, I was to busy doing research in my home to even sit down and have a meal.", he explained.
Just then, a large group of men heavily armored from head to toe entered the room. They had their shields in front of them and their meter long swords pointed high towards the ceiling. While the two heroes did not want to hurt anyone, they made themselves ready for the possibility that they would need to defend themselves. As the guards surrounded them, the answer to their location was made clear. "We are in England alright, of the Medieval variety.", he leaned over and said to Jack. A few seconds later, the guards parted their formation to allow access to the young squire they had seen shortly after they arrived in this place.
He took out scroll and began to read a rehearsed line. "I Daniel Fittlesworth, hereby arrest you two for your crimes of trespassing the property of the royal family. You are now ordered to seek audience with King Charles III in his throne room to have trial for your crimes.", the boy said in a squeaky high-pitched voice. The two heroes exchanged looks with one another to gain any insight as to want they should do next. "Wait, we can explain why w-SILENCE!", Mathew heard as he was interrupted by one of the guards. The two turned to face him.
"Hold your tongue nave, though art already in deep ado.", he said with a commanding voice that even they felt compelled to listen to. He was a tall man with dark silver armor and a covered face where only darkness was seen past the helmet. "Moveth or I driveth my sword through you!", he said with great anger. Even though his words were slightly difficult to understand, his message was well received. The two not wanting to anger him further, did as they were told and went on down the way that the gaurds led them.
They went down a long corridor that held many other relics and items that one might find in a medical castle. Identical armor of knights were out on display on the opposite sides of the corridor. Even more paintings could be seen as they walked along the path. Many of which included very graphic illustrations of people being whipped and stoned in public locations. The two shuddered at the sight of those images that hung at such an ominous time for them. They soon were at the doors of the king's throne room. "Open the doors!", said a booming voice from within.
As they walked through the doors, Matthew instructed Jack what he was planning to do. "After we find out what is going on here, I am going to create a diversion so that the guards will be momentarily distracted. You will then grab one of them and threaten to kill them, bluffing of course, while I break us out of here.", he whispered just as they stopped walking. They were now standing below the king on his high throne. He had was a very large presence in the room that made all the guards not required to stand upright bow before him. This was a situation that Mister Surreal was all to familiar with. "What do we have here?", said the king peering down at them.
Despite all the bizarre events Jack had been through over the last few hours, nothing unnerved him more than when Matthew said, "I believe it is the latter." For at the moment he heard those words, all he could think was, “You mean that darn clock thing sent us back in time?!?” followed by an even louder, “And just how the Hell are we going to get back home!?!” Immediately, he went into a silent frenzy, fumbling around the room like a primate, with his head hung low and a full on brooding expression. “For all we know we could die here and now, and never get born later when we’re suppose to?!?” But all the while Jack threw his mild temper tantrum, he was oblivious to all his friend did or said, and even as Matthew was filling his belly, Jack was still moping around in a fuss. Just then, a large group of men heavily armored from head to toe entered the room, commanding attention from just there presence. But upon closer inspection, Jack noticed a familiar symbol painted upon their over sized shields, and it wasn’t until Matthew leaned in and said, "We are in England alright, of the Medieval variety" that it dawned on Jack just where!
Painted boldly in a bright yellow against the offset of blood red, was the image of a single ‘Lion’s Head’ with piercing eyes. With a quick nudge to his partner to gain his attention, Jack quietly whisper so that they were the only ones to hear, “Do you see that, the Lion Head? It was the same insignia the soldiers wore back at the temple. I swear it!” He then grudgingly goes on to say, “It just has to mean something,” even though he really didn’t want to know what! But just before Jack was about to call forth his stooges for some extra protection, the small sniveling squire reentered the room with some importance. With all eyes drawn to him he began barking orders in a squeaky voice, "I Daniel Fittlesworth, hereby arrest you two for your crimes of trespassing the property of the royal family. You are now ordered to seek audience with King Charles III in his throne room to have trial for your crimes." But had it not been for the seriousness of the situation, Jack would have been laughing barrels over the name, ‘Fittlesworth.’ Lucky for Jack, Matthew was not so overtaken by the name, but more interested with his claims, and as such he asserted his position with a calm but forceful, "Wait, we can explain why w....”
But like everything so far, things were not so easy, and before the Magician could finish his sentence, he was interrupted with a resounding,, “SILENCE!” followed by a loud and echoing, "Hold your tongue nave, though art already in deep ado!” Not sure whether to run or fight, Jack was lost in the whole scale of things, as he tried to wrap his mind around time travel. Like some, the idea of ‘The Butterfly Effect’ plagued his thoughts, leaving him with the fear that one false move would destroy everything he ever loved or cared for. But by following along with the actions of his smarter friend, Jack passively went along, even as one of the Knights shouted, "Moveth or I driveth my sword through! Through!" Along with his heroic partner Jack was aggressively escorted through the castles hallways, decorated in tapestries depicting cruel and unusual torturing of peasants. But among them all the overwhelming theme was clearly a sign of the aristocrats domination over its people. After what seemed an endless journey through twisted corridors, Jack arrived outside two gigantic golden doors, the doors outside the king's throne room.
After a brief announcement from a Knight outside, inside the King barked out the order, "Open the doors!" Led by the tips of a broad sword, the two heroes were lead inside, into a room of power and luxury, with an overweight man sitting on a throne. Upon his royal garment was the same Lion Head symbol as the Knights shield, only with a golden crown placed upon its head. But just as Jack stepped in through the double doors, Matthew leaned in close with a plan to escape. Reluctantly Jack nodded in agreement, as he even positioned himself closer to a Knight, in order to put the plan into effect. In the mean time, the King leaned back in his thrown as a sign of intimidation, and openly mocked, "What do we have here?",as he slowly clapped his hands together in a sarcastic way. Surprisingly, at that moment in time, Jack came up with an idea. Just before taking a broad step forward, he whispered ever so slightly to Matthew, “Don’t worry I got this....” followed by, “I’ve seen A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, fourteen times.”
After a deep calming breath he looks up at the king showing no sign of fear but with respect. “My lordship, I mean, your kingdomness...” he snaps his fingers as the right word finally comes to mind, “....Your Royal Highness!” he smiles, “We are but brave men from a nearby kingdom sent here only for answers!” Immediately one of the Knights rattled his sword and shield yelling, “They be Wizards my Lord. Let me Kill them now!” after which every other Knight did the same. Surprisingly the King took notice, looking out across his men, and with the raising of one hand, they all went quiet. “No!” the King said as he sat forward, “They look to intelligent, and we all know Wizards are sup-par demons. Not as smart as we are!” He then paused for a second, allowing his silence to add importance to his next word. “Besides no Wizard would dare set foot in my Kingdom now that I have the Brush!” With that said, Jack knew his plan had failed, therefore he softly stepped back into the ranks next to his friend Matthew.
Fresh out of ideas, all he had was to go along with Matthews. Patiently he waited, while the King went on rambling about their deaths by a Thousand Cuts, for the moment when Matthew would create a distraction. For at that exact moment, Jack would go into action. Beginning with a mental command, he would send out to his side, Moe his right upper mechanical arm, straight towards the nearest Knight he could grab. Then like a steel python it would coil around him in seconds, head to toe, ensnaring him tight leaving him unable to move. Then to add insult to injury, he would lift the Knight high in the air, proving he was trapped, and extend the tip of Moe to approach his exposed neck. At that point a six inch spike would shoot out of the tip and place itself strategically against his thorax. All that was left was a clever, “Everybody! Put down your weapons or I’ll kill him,” even though it was a bluff, and, “Now shut up and listen to my friend!” Again this would only happen when and if Mister Surreal were to create a distraction, and of course if he was faster than a trained Knight!
Mister Surreal began to levitate in front of the entire room as he prepared to vocalize his thoughts. All the people inside of the room looked up at him with wide eyes and their jaws dropped. They were simultaneously amazed and terrified at the preference that they were currently being given. "My friend and I would like nothing more than to leave this place as well as all those who inhabit it alone. But we cannot do that because of our unique situation.", everyone there was captivated by the sight that was being given to them.
Matthew looked around the room, as he saw how all of the people had still been staring at him with disbelief. "I-Impossible! This is witch craft I say!", shouted the guard that had yelled at the two of them from earlier on. Though he was trying to manage the situation, his booming voice carried with a minor hint of fear beneath the the surface. "This witches shall be burned at the steak!", he then shouted. A few of the men yelled in agreement with what he was suggesting, but most of them were to afraid to even dare speak a word that wasn't in favor of these two people.
"Thee nave shall-SILENCE!", said the roaring voice of Matthew as he continued to levitate in mid-air. The tables had very much turned under these circumstances, with him being the one to lay the rules down. "You are in no position to be making threats towards me, guard!", he said as his eyes burrowed down into the skull of the guards who dared to speak against him. The guard was now backing away slowly, almost as if to whimper like a dog with his tail between his legs. Matthew almost smirked at what he was seeing. He barley showed them any power, but look at them now.
"We will be taking our leave and none of you are to try to stop us.", he said as he gave Jack a little signal that he had established with him. Jack immediately slung the guard that he was holding at the rest of them, many of which were knocked out on impact. Some of the guards quickly ran over to the aid of their allies, while others mustered the courage to run over to and attack the two "witches". Jack and Mathew quickly made their way out of the court and down the corridor of which they came. "After them!", the king shouted.
Matthew was flying while Jack was now moving by using his four mechanical arms as legs in order to travel at a greater speed. Some of the guards were running after them but were still far behind. "When you said you were going to 'bust' us out of here, I didn't think you meant that you were going to have use be chased by a group of guards.", Jack said in all honesty. Mathew looked at him as he went on to explain what there actual plan of escaping was. "I meant 'bust' by us being able to get away from these people in a grand fashion.", he said as they kept on going.
Jack snorted in derision to what Matthew had just said to him. "You got that part down, but how are we going to get out of here?", Jack asked as the two would soon be making the way of their destination. "You need to by me some time as I figure out how we are going to get back to our original location. And I know that saying 'by me some time' is ironic given the situation that we are currently dealing with.", Matthew said as they kept on running down the corridor with great haste. They were nearly at place that was required of them to be at.
"When I'm done, I need to figure out a way to erase any memory of the events that have unfolded today. If we allow them to have any memory of what has happened, it could alter the very course of history.", Matthew said as they made it back to the throne room. "What do we do now?", Jack said as they entered the room. "You need to hold them off as I get this artifact working once again.", he said as he picked up the clock from the floor. Jack nodded right before he went to fend off the soldiers that had been chasing them down the hallway. There would be no point in trying to barricade the door to stop them from coming in, they would be able to come in by force either way.
Mister Surreal looked at the clock t each angle quickly as he tried to figure out his get it working again. He couldn't find any visible ways of getting it to work, and his magic certainly didn't have any affect on it. "Could you hurry up, I can't hold them off forever?! Not without hurting them that is!", Jack shouted as he was beginning to get overwhelmed by the number of guards that were attacking him. He was holding back against them greatly, if he were to use his full power, they would stand very little chance against him.
"I don't get it, what am I supposed to do?", Matthew inquired as he tried to figure out how to operate the object. Even if he figured out how to use it, how would still need to find a way of erasing the minds of all the people who had seen them that day. "What am I supposed to do? I...that's it!", Mister Surreal exclaimed as he figured it out. "Jack, grab my arm!", he yelled as he got ready to got ready to take his next course of action. "Now what?", Jack asked", as he grabbed his arm and the guards closed in on them. "This.", Mathew said as he turned the hands on the clock backwards.
All of the guards were seemingly frozen, but then began to run in reverse as he kept going. "Not only is it working again, but if I reverse to before we arrived here, it would be as if we had never come in the first place.", Matthew said as he kept on going. "But what about the brush?", Jack asked. "That has already been taken care of.", Matthew said as he pulled it out of his pocket. "While they were looking up at me, I used my telekinesis to pull it off of its pedestal. Once we started to make our escape, I put it into a safe place.", he said.
"Magic is all about misdirection.", Matthew said as Jack applauded his actions. When it had reached the point where they could then use the clock to get them to where they needed to be, Mister Surreal went to use it again. But he had now lost control of it and the clock was now acting on its own like it had before. "Not again!", Jack said as the where about to get to their next destination. Their journey was not over yet and the brush could be lost as easily as it could be found.
Somehow, despite how ill conceived it was, the plan managed to work. The heroes were now racing down a corridor of hallways, each decorated with the same vulgar tapestries along the wall. In an attempt to keep up with the flying sorcerer, Jack ran down the hallways atop his four stooges, each lifting him roughly five yards off the ground. Together they carried him faster than a sports car, in a horse like manner as they trotted along step by step. But as he was running blindly through the castle, hoping his friend had some sort of plan, they could still hear a small army of Knights running after them. As usual Jack was clueless as to where they were going, for he was as good as lost. The only thing he did know was to keep up with Matt, but despite it all he still had to ask, “Just how are we going to get out of here?" Surprisingly enough, the Sorcerer Supreme was making it up as he went along, yet in a reassuring tone he answered back, "You need to buy me some time as I figure out how we are going to get back to our original location. And I know that saying 'buy me some time' is ironic given the situation that we are currently dealing with." Already Jack was thinking, ‘Great’ as he followed blindly, until the moment his eyes locked on the mystical clock still resting alone inside the Banquette Hall.
Coming to an abrupt halt inside, Jack stood in wonder as to what the magician would do next, but as the suspense built up he had to ask, "What do we do now?" to which Matthew calmly replied back, "You need to hold them off as I get this artifact working once again." Finally Jack heard something he could understand and with a quick “Will do!” he went into action. With the recognizable sound of metal clanking together, ten fully armed Knights began forcing their way in through the main doors, with swords at the ready. Like a well armed machine they worked together, using their strength and skill to their advantage, shouting the battle cry, “Death to all Wizards!” Immediately Jack dropped to the floor, landing firmly on his two feet. At the same time he recoiled his two lower mechanical arms back inside of him, as he readied his two upper ones to defend. Like a pair of human arms, he crossed one over the other in front of his chest in a defensive stance, then like a barrier he thrust them forward. Acting like a makeshift fence, they stood in the Knight’s path, holding them back. For a few brief minutes the Knights swung their swords against the metal arms, hacking away at them piece by piece, and with each strike, thin microscopic cuts dug into them only to grow back like a new shell, just like the ones before. But despite the fact he was holding them back for now, a true Knight would never stop until his goal was accomplished, and because of this, he shouted to Matthew, "Could you hurry up, I can't hold them off forever?! Not without hurting them that is!"
Unknown to Jack, while he was valiantly fighting off the Knight’s advance, Matthew was busy unlocking the mysteries of the clock. Looking upon it as more than just a time piece, paired with his knowledge of the mystic arts, he unlocked the last piece in the puzzle on how to make it work. With no time to waist he quickly shouted, "Jack, grab my arm!" to which Jack abruptly asked back “Now What?” as the Knights continued to hack away. But it wasn’t until the Sorcerer Supreme stated, "This" that Jack lowered his arms and turned around. Happy to see that his friend had the timepiece working, Jack immediately clasped his hand to Matthews, just in time to see the world around him go into slow motion. The Knights now stood as statues, frozen in time with their swords held high and a disgruntle look upon their faces. Once again Jack could feel the odd sensation of his body being broken down to a molecular level, only to be pulled into the time piece as it spun around. But just before he was wisped away in a mystic whirlwind, he found the strength to inquire, "But what about the brush?" Then, almost as a whisper, before everything was gone, Matthew answered back, "That has already been taken care of." after which he pulled it out of his pocket, and vanished into the clock.
Suddenly the world stopped spinning and Jack found himself tossed across a room. Grunting slowly as he stood up his eyes began to focus on his new surroundings. To his surprise, he found himself back in the temple, standing in the vase room otherwise known as the room he was about to enter before being transported to a Dragon’s lair. After removing a lit torch from off the wall he called out for Matthew in order to see if he was okay, followed by a loud and resonant, “I hope we never have to go through that again!” Hoping for the best, Jack went on with inane questions about time travel, specifically the fact, “Are you sure we didn’t change time? Because I don’t want to find out apes have taken over or something like that!” But as Jack slowly lead Matthew out towards the temples front door, he felt it necessary to ask, “So what do we do about the brush? I mean I’m sure Dr Suars would love to get his hands on it. But the problem is he wouldn’t know what to do with it!” Before they knew it Jack was stepping out into the light, as he exited the temple for the last time. Suddenly he came to an abrupt halt, shouting, “Oh Hell NO!” as he came face to face with the Lion Head army waiting for them outside.
Armed with the latest technology, based on both science and magic, they numbered around forty soldiers accompanied by ten of the best scientist known throughout the underworld. At the moment they noticed the two heroes, they immediately took a strategic stance, with their guns cocked and ready. Waiting for the order to fire, they aimed their advanced weapons upon the heroes, covering them both in several tiny little red dots. But with everyman at the ready, one of the higher ranked scientist spoke up shouting, “Don’t fire! They may have the brush on them!” followed with, “Above all else, we must have the brush undamaged!” He then bravely steps forward with an antique chest in his hands, as he looks over the heroes trying to size them up. Without another word, he opens the chest with it facing away from him and immediately it calls out to the brush. Like a whirlwind trying to pull one and only one thing into it, the brush, where ever it may be, was now being pulled to it, and with great force. If the brush lay in Mister Surreal’s pocket, it would rip its way out, in order to go to the chest. If he had hidden it under his cloak, it would still find a way to reach the chest. The fact is, no matter where the brush lay, it was now flying to the chest, where the scientist would trap it in there until he choose to set it free. If that were not bad enough, as Jack happened to look out up on the temples outer walls, he couldn’t help but notice it was covered in dynamite, ready to explode upon a soldiers command! Either way, Jack humbly looked over to Matthew, with only one thing on his mind, “Oh this looks bad!”
"That's an understatement.", Mister Surreal said. Matthew and Jack the gripper really had their work cut out for them this time, this would be one of their greatest challenges yet. They were surrounded by an army, their enemies were welding an arsenal of weapons both scientific and magical, the temple behind them was about to explode and they had both outlived their purpose. Matthew's mind frantically raced as it tried to find a way out of this one. All he could think of doing at this point is stalling for as long as possible, he may have a chance of figuring out how to overcome this problem. "Who are you people? Who are you really?", he asked with genuine desire to get an answer. The leader of the group's eyes crawled back at Surreal as the joy on his face quickly disappeared. "Hmm, may name is General Drude. You may have figured out by now that we are the lion's head, but we come by another name: CLAW! It stands for Coterie Leading All Worlds.", he said with a malevolent grin
Matthew and Jack exchanged looks of both worry and confusion as they took in this strange bit of information. "I didn't except you to understand, so I will continue. We are a group built around acquiring power and furthering our knowledge of it. We have spent many years now searching for objects of great power, the ones that we heard in stories when we were children. The Holy Grail, Excalibur...The Brush of Alteration. One by one we have stalked and found these objects and used them to further our goals as well as our knowledge of how each and every one of them work. We were made to look like fools by those who were blind to the truth, but look at us now, we have just obtained one of our most desired artifacts yet."The man said with pure evil. "What do you want with the brush?", Matthew inquired. The general smirked as he looked back at the sorcerer. "You call yourself the Sorcerer Supreme and yet you have such poor understanding of the most basic of concepts.", he said with great condescension.
Matthew frowned at the general's remark, he knew that he had worked hard to obtain his position and didn't care for people belittling him. But he calmed himself and made sure that he didn't say or do anything hasty, that could result in him and his friend being injured, or worse! "This brush was used by one of the many Sorcerer Supremes, Merlin of England. This brush had collected tens of thousands of his follicles and slowly had absorbed his magic into its very structure, engraved into it. The power of a Sorcerer Supreme when trapped within an ancient artifact centuries old...", the general said trailed off as he gave the box containing the artifact to some of the other researchers. The men began to scan the box while the brush was still inside of it, the computer that it was linked to analyzed the data that was being collected. "Makes us all the more powerful.", Drude fished.
The men activated the device as all Jack and Matthew could do was stand in horror as the men nearly finished their work. Matthew subtly leaned closer to Jack as the men went about their work. "I'm sorry, but I don't know what to do about this one.", Matthew said with true sadness in his voice. The two men had about twelve soldiers watching closely as they stood with their arms in the air. Mister Surreal couldn't simply create portal and get the two out of there, if he made any sort of movement that would seem to be him casting a spell, they would be bombarded by a barrage of magical and scientific weapons. It would take nothing but a miracle to get these two put of the situation that they were in.
By this time, the scientists had now completed their work. The General smiled as he saw that all of the needed data had been collected. He went to the machine as he picked up another gun that was similar but unique to the other ones. "With our latest artifact, we now have an unlimited supply of destructive magic to add to our arsenal. This gun is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what can create.", said the general as he loaded it with one round imbued with both science and magic. "I have one other question. Why are you telling us all of this?", Matthew asked as the general finished loading the gun. "It wouldn't make any sort of difference from you or your dimwitted friend. You would be to dead to affect us in any meaningful way.", he said as he loaded the last round. "And I wouldn't bother trying to catch this bullet Jack, it would disintegrate you either way.", the general said as he pointed the gun at them.
Jack and Matthew had both said their prayers by now. "Cheerio.", he said as he slowly pulled back the trigger. But before the trigger was pulled far enough to end the two heroes, the ground started shaking. All of the men and women began looking around in fear as it only worsened by the second. Even the general showed concern on his face. "It's an Earthquake!", one of the men said. "It isn't an Earthquake you fool, it's-" Before he could finish announcing what it truly was, the red dragon flew out of the top of the temple with smoke coming from its mouth and a fiery look in its eyes.
Jack stood back as the others spoke, watching and waiting for the right time to strike. Unfortunately he could not find one. Every scenario he went through in his head ended with either him dead on the floor or blown to pieces with the temple. Even as he looked to Matthew for hope, he could see the same level of doubt in the magicians eyes. The only thing going for him, was time, as Mister Surreal kept the General talking, in the same manner an evil spy would do in a James Bond movie. But with every word the General said, Jack added his own spin by asking Matt questions like, “I’ve never heard of C.L.A.W. have you?” and “What kind of damage do you think their weapons can do?” But it wasn’t until the power hungry General Drude boasted, "And I wouldn't bother trying to catch this bullet Jack, it would disintegrate you either way," that Jack knew he was in dire trouble. With no other option but to fight, Jack was seconds away from uncoiling all four of his stooges, in a valiant attempt to go out swinging, hoping to take down as many soldiers as he could before being annihilated. Or worse, he might go up with the temple if and when the word is given to blow it up. Either way he boldly looked death in the face, as he locked eyes with the man pulling the trigger, never once flinching, even when he heard the cold and ill fated, "Cheerio."
Suddenly, the ground beneath them began to shake, as a loud rumbling could be heard stirring from inside the temple. Unaware of what was truly going on, the General shouted, "It's an Earthquake!"as he and his soldiers fought just to stand up. But it wasn’t until one of the higher ranking soldier pointed towards the temple shouting, "It isn't an Earthquake you fool, its-" that the real threat came to light. With a loud roar, a baby red dragon burst its way through the temple’s roof, taking off the top ten feet of it with him. In doing so, a shower of mortar and stone rained down upon Jack and the soldiers, with rocks the size of human heads crashing down upon them. Even Jack was forced to shield himself with one of his stooges, as he coiled it over his head like a makeshift shield. Lucky for Jack, at the moment the Dragon made his presence known, all eyes turned toward it, rather than him. Including every single one of them that had their guns aimed upon him. Beginning with a hundred yard wing span, the Dragon soared above with smoke coming from its mouth and a fiery look in its eyes. Like a trained killer it circled above all, as it looked down upon its prey, while licking its lips. Immediately General Drude gave the order for his men to fire upon it, while strategically falling back into the ranks.
Together in unison the soldiers fired, unleashing a wave of blue mystic energy from there rifles, along with some good old fashion grenades. Unfortunately the Dragon, although still a baby, was by far more powerful than anything they had ever met before. With a wave of it’s three fingered claw, it countered the attack with a spell of misguidance, and in doing so the blue energy immediately turned around, and rained back upon the soldiers that fired it. The soldiers that survived, called for more back up as several of them reached for more powerful weapons. But by now the Dragon was moving in for the kill and after a bone chilling “Screech”it unhinged it’s jaw and bellowed out a wave of fire. Instantly half of the men were burned alive after screams of agony, as the other shielded themselves with a low level spell, that anyone could master. But in the middle of it all General Drude barked orders, beginning with ordering four highly trained soldiers to remove the brush and take it back to headquarters. As for the Dragon, he noticed through his knowledge of the occult, that the Dragon was drawing its power from the temple. With that in mind he shouted to his remaining men, “Do it Now! Blow the damn Temple to smithereens!”
Still somewhat in a state of shock over seeing a red Dragon flying overhead, Jack quickly realized that now was the time to strike. With a reluctant “Matthew, see if you can do something to save the temple, while I go after the brush!” He then breathes in deep as he finishes, “...cause I don’t know how we are going to get out of this. But I’m sure the brush will have something to do with it!” With all four of his mechanical arms still recalled inside, he pushed off with his two human legs and with his enhanced body, easily leaped from the top of the temples stairs all the way to the bottom. Lucky for him the remaining soldiers were in a state of chaos over their fight with the Dragon. Quickly eying the four soldiers carrying the brush away, he noticed them loading the chest upon a military truck with three of them in the back, and one up front to drive. Immediately, Jack shot out Moe his right upper mechanical arm, and like a bolt of steel lightning it extended outwards until reaching the truck. Then as planned, it coiled itself over and over around the back axle until the moment he jerked it back, ripping the back half from off the truck. In doing so the three guards in the rear fell out, hitting the ground so hard that they were knocked unconscious, leaving only the driver to contend with. Filled with rage, the driver quickly exited the truck, hitting the ground in a tuck and roll, shouting obscenities, mixed with a vile, “You are so dead!” Then without waisting a second, in one fluid motion he draws his rifle and fires off three controlled blast of the mystic blue energy at Jack.
But as the four armed fighter was more concerned with snatching up the chest in Moe’s firm but gentle grasp, he failed to notice the soldier. In a flash of blue light, the first two blasts missed him by inches, with one traveling past his neck. The third one, however, clipped him in the leg, right across his thigh, to which the magic could take effect. Immediately Jack let out a loud, “Arghh!!” after falling to the ground in an intense amount of pain, as a blue glow spreads out across his body, starting from the wound. With no time to deal with it now he moves out of instinct and with a slight application of the ink glands under his wrist, a thick black goo shoots out. Then before the soldier could react, the goo solidifies encasing him in a hard rock black cocoon, from his neck down to his feet. On any other day Jack would have tried for a witty repartee after his attack, but by now his body had grown numb from the blue energy. Despite his best efforts he was unable to move, for the more he tried the more pain he would feel. But with so much on the line, Jack refused to lay down and die. By sheer luck, he noticed he could still control his stooges, with a minimum amount of pain. With this in mind, he muscled up all the strength left inside him to command Moe to rise up and grab the chest. Followed by several agonizing grunts in pain, he looked out across the battlefield to his partner and after a loud scream he shouts, “Matthew, over here! Take this blasted brush and do something only you could do with it.” Then just as he was about to pass out under the spell of the magic blast, he musters up all the strength in his mechanical arm, and hurls it to his partner, after which he mutters, “..cause I’m counting on you pal..” then slowly closes his eyes!
Jack was gong after the brush while Mister Surreal would need to figure out a way to stop the temple from collapsing upon itself. Mister Surreal quickly flew over to the temple where there were now a great many pieces of rock and clay falling from the sky in large chunks, they could easily kill anyone unfortunate enough to be standing beneath them. And it just so happened that there were several soldiers who were standing near the base of the pyramid when the dragon had flown out of it, how unclucky. Mister Surreal was quick to casted a protection spell on the men before they could have the giant objects land on them, which would seal their fates for sure. What happened instead was that the men had he objects harmlessly deflect off of a protective shield that was put around them only a few seconds before they could say goodbye to their mortal forms. The men shouted with joy that they had just been “miraculously” saved from meeting a very unexpected fate. They made their way from the temple as Mister Surreal then flew over to it. “Let’s get started.”, he said to himself.
He got to the point where there was a gaping whole on top of the temple and then got to work on repairing as much damage as possible. Many of the pieces of the temple were still coming down and needed to be dealt with before they could caused any further damage to the structural integrity. He quickly put his hands up and made a shield around himself, the debris simply fell to the side and left him unaffected. He quickly used his telekinesis to stop the top of the structure from caving in, the pieces at the top of the temple slowly began to stop falling. This however would not last forever, he needed to find a permanent solution. “I have to think of something before this entire temple comes crumbling down.”, Mister Surreal said as the effects of his magic slowly began to wither away. But he quickly got an idea as to what he should do. He then project a large magical blast that would destroy the oncoming pieces of the temple falling from the sky.
While it seemed at first that the only thing that this course of actions had accomplished was destroying the larger pieces, there was actually a better reason behind it. Mister Surreal then began to summon a tool to help him with supporting the temple. “I summon the Bands of Bolmic!”, he shouted as the objects began to form on his wrist. After a few seconds, three red chains had completely manifested onto his wrist and were now under his control, for s short period of time that was. He used the three chains to stop the temple from caving in on itself all together, but he wasn’t finished yet. The destroyed pieces of clay and stone had now formed a large dust cloud that would be used to finish the process. Mister Surreal raised his free hand gathered the dust cloud by quickly drawing it toward himself. The dust cloud began forming near the top of the structure and was being used to rebuild the damaged areas by Mister Surreal. He then used the sapphire chains (which were burning) to cement the newly rebuilt parts of the temple in place.
“Now to do the next part.”, Matthew thought to himself as he floated down from the top of the structure. He found himself on the battlefield where all chaos had now broken loose, obviously because of the fear that the soldiers had of the dragon. Mister Surreal hovered a few inches off the ground as he quickly made his way to where he believed that Jack and the brush now were. He didn’t fly over the battle field because knew that he would immediately become a target of not only the men in the ground who long ranged weapons, but also the dragon who would likely try to fry him after becoming a closer target. He came across a group of men who were quick to make an assault on him, despite the fact that there were much bigger matters to deal with at the time. He quickly casted the men to the side with a hand gesture and then made his way farther down the battlefield. However, some of the men were carrying more powerful weapons and needsd to be stopped with more powerful attacks. He took the blast from their guns as he held out his hands with a shield to prevent them from them from being able to to injure him. He then forced his hands out causing them to fall backwards.
He then tried to find his friend Jack who needed to be located among all of this madness, along with the powerful magical item that he may have obtained while he was gone. He looked around his entire area but couldn’t find Jack any where, all he could see was the enormous dragon flying above him and the soldiers scattered everywhere trying to run for cover. He definitely wouldn’t be able to sense where he was due to the sheer amount of choas that had started him such a short period of time. But he quickly heard his friend call him over and took off when he saw where he was lying. His friend was quite injured but was more focused on him using the brush, which he took before stepping away.
Mister Surreal looked down at the brush as he tried to figure out how to use it. He tried to siphon what was left of its power, but it was simply to weak to him. It seemed as if the brush had simply gone back to what it orginally had been, nothing more than an ordinary device used to comb ones hair. Some of the soldiers began to notice what was happening, they them began firing on Mister Surreal who now had his force-field up to protect him. He looked back at Jack one more time before making a last attempt at using the brush. “AHHHHHH!”, Mister Surreal yelled with one final swing as the brush blasted with magical energy that had quickly covered the entire battlefield. All the men and women flew to the ground at they were hit by this blast, even the dragon in the air could feel the force of the blow. After a few moments to process what happened, some of the soldiers went to reach for their weapons, only to realize that they no longer worked.
With the brush held up firmly in the air, the one and only Mister Surreal unleashed the last of its mystical energy. Like a ripple in water the magic spread out in all directions mixed with a humming sound and bright yellow glow. Despite the fact the brush was already in a weakened state, it still had enough potential energy for one last try. As the magic was unleashed, its first effected all the men and women, who flew to the ground in a state of mystic suspension, weakened and stunned by the blast. At the time they were unaware that the weapons had been neutralized, instead they laid motionless moaning and groaning. But as the last bits of the brush's energy flew out, its effect on the artifact became obvious. It’s once vibrant colors were now grayish as its bristles were now dull. It now looked like an empty shell of its former self ready to crumble into dust. But what was worse, at the moment the light left the brush, so did the light from the Dragon above. In one brief instance, the Dragons eyes went gray as the red scales that covered its hide did the same. Where it once breathed a ball of mighty fire, now came out only as soft wisps of smoke. As it’s slowly stopped flapping it’s wings, it fell to the ground good as dead, for it was now obvious that there was some mystical connection between itself and the brush. After one lost its power, so did the other!
But lucky for Jack, the brushes energy had a different effect on him. As the wave of mystic energy spread out over his lifeless body, his four mechanical arms were still extended outwards covering him. In a strange twist of fate, the arms had a unique ability to absorb incoming energy and in this case...the magic! When the wave finally passed over him, each of the four stooges now glowed and hummed with the brushes power, revitalizing them on a molecular level. As the arms were a part of Jack, very soon the yellow glow spread out across his body starting from his back, where the stooges came out from, outwards until reaching his hands and feet. At that point, the spot where he was shot was now in a mystic war between the blue energy from the gun, against the yellow energy from the brush. For what seemed an eternity, the two colors fought against each other as his wound was shifting from color to color, with him roaring in agony. In the end the brush’s power won, as both colors faded away and the wound quickly healed. With his head still throbbing in pain, he slowly rose to his feet inquiring, “Just what the heck hit me?” as the cobwebs in his mind began to clear. But as always he found himself smack dab in the middle of trouble, caught between a dying Dragon, a temple held together with mystic red chains, his friend Matthew, and of course one angry mob of soldiers!
While still trying to put the pieces together, Jack couldn’t help but ask, “So how bad have things gotten since I was out?” only to see the answer in front of his face. As the soldiers were rising after their bout with the brushes power, they quickly learned that their weapons no longer worked. But as always General Drude was on top of it and was already issuing his men with tridents, to which the trained eyes could tell, held some limited magic. But before the soldiers charged forth into battle, the General felt the need to raise the stakes in his favor. With a powerful voice he shouted “Followers of the Lion’s Head, Show your true form” but in some unwritten language only a master of the mystic arts could understand. In doing so the men let out a primal roar, followed by their eyes turning blood red. Soon a thick layer of hair covered their bodies, including a pronounced mane and hairy palms. Within mere seconds the soldiers had fully transformed into a Human Lion Hybrid, each one standing a full eight feet tall. Now fueled with a savage rage, they awaited the order to attack, with each man snarling and baring their fangs. But among them all General Drude chose to remain in a full human form and instead chose to single his attack directly to the one man who was the biggest threat, Mister Surreal.
With a quick gesture of his hands, one over the other, he shouted the words, “leo de virtute cordis” and immediately a change began. Like his soldiers his eyes turned a dark red, as hair grew out across his body. But unlike them, his hair seemed to be alive with fire and fury, as his body continued to grow larger and larger. Already he stood ten times the size of his tallest soldier, with his eyes locked on nothing but Mister Surreal. Within seconds his body was more Lion than Human as his frame was almost the size of the red Dragon. In a sign of power he dug his claws into the ground, leaving cracked lines upon the stone at their feet, as his drool fell down like rain. Wasting no more time he growled out in a deep baritone voice, “Lions Attack!” followed by “And above all else, RETRIEVE THE BRUSH NO MATTER WHAT!!” Immediately General Drude led his men into battle as he took the lead in his Lion form, charging forward at top speed. Ignoring everything else he focused only on the Magician wasting no time, in the hopes of biting down on his flesh or crushing him under his paw. But either way the Sorcerer Supreme was about to go face to face with one giant angry Lion made from pure mystic energy, with enough magic and strength to take down an army of Sorceress.
Mister Surreal was relived that he was able to stop the army of soldiers before the could do any more damage, but he was especially happy about the fact that he and his friend remained safe. However, the dragon that they had met before the battle had no been as lucky as the two heroes. After seeing the color from its scales fade into gray and fall to the ground shortly after, Matthew felt himself somewhat depressed. He had always hated seeing death occur, even when it was in different beings who were less than pleasant towards him.The dragon's lifeless body came crashing into the dirt with a prompt "thud". One that was large enough to shake the very ground that they were standing on, much like it had when it had flown out of the temple in the first place. This only caused Matthew to feel worse about the recent events that played out. He felt responsible for the death of the creature and wish that he could rectify his mistake, one that he knew that he was truly responsible for.
He looked around and saw that each member of the army had been knocked down by the massive blast that he unleashed only a few seconds ago. Many of which were seemingly knocked out by the pure concussive impact of what he had sent flying all over the battlefield. Fortunately, none of the men or women seemed to be seriously injured in the explosion despite devastating impact that it had on the area as a whole. "Jack!", Mister Surreal exclaimed when the safety of his friend was brought back to the front of his thoughts. His eyes collected a host of information of the state of the area they swept across the entire plane with a hasty sense of urgency that you would see in the eyes of someone searching for someone that they cared deeply about. Mister Surreal was flying during this time and in doing so was able to find Jack in a short amount of time. He went his friend in order to see what physical state he was in.
"Are you alright?!", Matthew said as he stood over his friend in hopes that he was too severely injured. He sensed that he didn't have any of the remaining energy from the magical weapons left on him after he had been hit by one of the beams. His notion was proven to be true after he saw that his friend had completely recovered from the attack and was more confused about what had just happened than anything else. "I used the last of the energy in the brush to attack the army that was coming for us. The blast that I created washed over you and seemingly healed all of the injuries that you had sustained.", he explained in his usual accurate and logical fashion. The brush now had little to no energy left within its frame to be used in once again in any meaningful way, if in any way possible that was. However, the abilities that it once carried would prove to be very useful in the case that the two heroes were now dealing with. "And things are going much more in our favor, many of the soldiers have now been incapacitated.
General Drude got back up once again and immediately began to give orders to the other recovering soldiers so that they could send another attack against the heroes. "Stop this! Any attempt of attack that you make is now futile.", Mister Surreal said as he voice boomed across the battlefield. But his statement would be proven incorrect very soon after the soldiers began to enact their back up plan. After General Drude gave his orders, the army of seemingly human women and men began to change from their humanoid appearances into something very different. Their nails extended in length and became razor sharp, resulting in their finger tips dripping blood from as they they only became sharper by the second. Their teeth became more sharp as well, but they had the additional change of losing some teeth in order to make room for the growing size of the new ones. The last big change was the fur growing on their bodies, to the point where only their animalistic faces could been seen among the field of fur.
In little time, the entire army of once humanoid soldiers had completely turned into a group of monstrous creatures that appeared to be a combination of humans and lions. With General Drude being the one at the forefront of all of it. His appearance was undoubtedly the most surprising out of all of them, definitely getting the attention of Mister Surreal who while wasn't entirely taken aback, was certainly surprised by the sudden change in the army. The general ordered the now triton armed group to attack the tow heroes and retrieve the brush, much to the dismay of Mister Surreal and almost certainly his eight limbd ally. The lions quickly rushed at the two with blood lust in their eyes. "Take the brush and run with it.", Mister Surreal said as he handed the object over to his friend. He was willing to have himself be the one to lure the lions away from the brush in order to make sure that they didn't get their hands on it. But it wouldn't be easy to convince Jack, so he didn't give him a choice.
He faced his incoming opponent and got ready to deal with the most dangerous adversary that he would have to face on this entire journey. The General in his lion form blazed with pure heat that Mister Surreal wasn't sure was actual fire that it seemed to be, but the chard ground under his feet would suggest that it was indeed. General opened his mouth as it flickered with orange and yellows flames that were reminiscent of the sun itself. Mister Surreal rose up into the air in order to put a good amount of distance between himself and the flaming feline that he would have to some way subdue. However, the General wasn't one to give up at the first sign of trouble, which lead him to jumping up into the air and spreading his jaws out for the magic user above him. Mister Surreal quickly put a mystical deference and was able to block the attack before he was roasted alive. He was however hit with great force and knocked onto the ground in a swift and painful fashion.
He struggled on the ground as he tried to get up, but was quickly knocked down by the lion was again. The barrier that he put between them was able to protect him from the flames, but he could still feel an extreme amount of heat coming through the barrier between them. "Ahh!", he said as the heat started to burn the shield with the increased amount of anger that the General felt. For Mister Surreal, it was like putting his hand on a hot stove as it only got hotter. He needed to cast another spell, but his arms were currently stuck with the task of keeping the beast away from his body. He was forced to let one hand support the weight of the lion's body while the other would be used to do something to get him out of his current situation.
He took down one hand and yelled as the pain only grew worse, he then made it so that the air between them was slowly being frozen to the point where ice was now forming. Mister Surreal then used his hand that was till supporting the lion to throw it into his face with enough force to stun him long for the amount of time that he needed to escape. The lion squinted in pain as the snow from the attack went directly into its eyes, causing the flames in its retina to go out for a few seconds, making it temporarily blind. Mister Surreal took the opportunity to launch a greater version of his previous spell, one that would be more defective against the burning lion. While the lion closed its eyes in pain, it was hit by this new attack and yelled in anger. It had its flames reignite and burn even more greatly now that it had greater rage setting in. Mister Surreal hoped that Jack was having more success with his current activity.
Still lying on the flat of his back, Jack’s body was in the processes of healing itself. The magic from the brush had washed over his body and his arms had absorbed it. The battle of lights flickering around his wound was coming to an end, and soon he was slowly opening his eyes. Beginning with a blur, the image before him was more shadowy than whole, representing a humanoid shape still rough around the edges. But at the moment he heard the words, “Are you alright?!” in a recognizable tone that could only come from his good friend Matthew, the first thing that came to Jack’s mind was, “I’ve been (he coughs).....better.”Rising to his feet with his friends assistance Jack was still in somewhat of a daze, even as his vision returned to normal. His legs were still weak and he had one hell of a throbbing headache, but despite the discomfort he kept his head in the game. Trying his best to catch up, and down play the fact he was close to death, he inquired back, “Just what the heck hit me?” followed by “So how bad have things gotten since I was out?” In both cases he expected to hear the worst, based purely off years of personal experience. But somewhere,deep in the back of his mind he was hoping just once for some good news, and to his surprise......that was exactly what he got! In a reassuring tone, drenched with camaraderie, Matthew, the Sorcerer Supreme answered back, "I used the last of the energy in the brush to attack the army that was coming for us. The blast that I created washed over you and seemingly healed all of the injuries that you had sustained. And things are going much more in our favor, many of the soldiers have now been incapacitated.”
Filled with a sense of pride over his friends accomplishment while he was out. Jack reached out to pat him on his shoulder followed by an over used cliché, “I couldn’t have done it any better. I’m proud of yousport.” but as always, in these few brief moments of bonding, something always goes wrong. Across the field standing along side his surviving men, General Drude stood strong as a symbol of power, reorganizing his men for one last massive counter offense. By his own actions he was arming his men with six foot long tridents, to which the trained eyes could tell held some limited magic. But just as quickly as they regrouped so did Matthew, and with a voice that bellowed out across the field he shouted, "Stop this! Any attempt of attack that you make is now futile." But as General Drude stared back at him with a cold look in his eye, he laughed back at the Magician's threat, and instead ordered his men to attack. Followed by an echoing, “Followers of the Lion’s Head, Show your true form” the General and his men began a transformation, where their bodies became more cat like. Their face and bodies grew hair at an alarming rate as claws protruded from their finger tips. Within seconds the once human soldiers were now Lion/Human Hybrids, standing over eight feet tall. Together they clawed and growled as their savage nature took over, with a look of hunger in their eyes. But what made it worse was, as the General went through his beastly transformation, his final form was a gigantic fiery lion with teeth over six feet long. In the end the heroes were now facing an entirely new threat, with the strength and speed to out class them.
In an act of pure and noble self sacrifice, Matthew quickly handed the brush over to Jack, while saying,"Take the brush and run with it." hoping that his friend could escape with the artifact while he distracts the army. But not to be out shined Jack’s protective nature took over and in response shouted back, “Oh don’t you dare go thinking I’d leave you here to face the army alone....” But before he could finish his sentence, the Sorcerer Supreme was already off and flying away to face the danger alone, even though drastically out numbered. Once again Jack felt a sense of pride in his friend's heroic actions even though it was one of the dumbest things he ever saw. Unfortunately the Magician's plan was not well conceived, as even in his full fiery Lion form the General’s last command was a resounding, “And above all else, RETRIEVE THE BRUSHNO MATTER WHAT!!” As such, every eye of the remaining Lion/Human Hybrid army locked on Jack, and the brush in his hand, and immediately took after him. In a full on stampede the soldiers charged forth, rallying their tridents in the air and shouting “For our pride and for power!” all the while closing in on Jack. Although there were only fifteen men left in the army, they still moved in with an intimidating force, leading with their tridents and following a five by five formation.
With no time to waste, Jack stared out across the army heading his way and in his own lovable way remarked, “Okay Stooges, lets give them Hell,” as all four of his mechanical arms sprung out from his back, and took a defensive stance around him. The two upper ones were cocked back like fists, ready to strike at a moments notice, while the bottom two flailed around in order to protect his frame. But as the army was almost in striking distance, he knew his next move needed to take out as many Lion/Human Hybrids as he could, and fast. With a quick mental command he launched forward his two upper mechanical arms out in a widening ‘V’ shape formation, one to the right side of the army, the other to the left. Then at the moment the army was strategically placed within them, he let loose an electrical charge of over 75 watts between them. Like two giant lighting rods bolts of electricity bounced back and forth, striking the Hybrids and incapacitating them with ease. Unfortunately, some of the Hybrids got wise and as half of the army lay motionless on the battlefield, the rest leaped through the air with cat like precision. Very soon Jack was caught in the middle of eight deadly Lion/Human Hybrids, dancing around him while looking for just the right moment to strike. In the mean time Jack swung his arms around, hoping to either swat one of them in the air, or better yet ensnare one in one of his mechanical grips. Either way Jack continued to fight on, all the while shouting, “I’ll get one of you darn cats, sooner or later!"
Now caught in a life and death dance, the eight Lion/Human Hybrids pranced around him in a blur. Despite the fact Jack’s arms had bullet catching speed, he was unable to keep up with the speed of the soldiers. In the end the Hybrids had the technical advantage, and were seconds away from a final strike. Suddenly a cold chill fell across the battlefield, as Jack was able to see his own breath. Immediately the Hybrids fell back to regroup as the ground beneath them turned to cold ice. Even the air around them turned to snow, as if a new ice age had swept the land. As for Jack, he had no idea what happened, but as the Lion/Human Hybrids retreated, he was moved to comment, “Well what do you know, I guess Hell just froze over?!?” But before he could take a moment for himself, his first concern was for his friend, and as such he immediately looked for him. To his dismay, Matthew was pinned under the paw of the gigantic fiery lion, fighting for his life with snow. With no regard to his own safety Jack moved to save his friend, and with a healthy, “Hold on Matt! I’m coming!” began by leaping into the air. With the use of his advanced physiology, he easily reached a full ten yards above the head of the fiery lion, whereas at that point he used his two lower mechanical arms to keep him there. In doing so, the two Stooges acted like Jet Thrusters as they positioned themselves on each side of him, and released a steady stream of energy, that safely kept him levitated, and ready to counterstrike.
Quickly realizing that the only way to beat the fiery beast was to put out the fire, he raised his two flesh and blood hand towards it with his palms up. Then after a short, “I sure hope this works” he activated the ink glands under his wrists, releasing one after another ink globs each the size of a common tennis ball. Upon contact the globs hit with a sizzling, “SSSSSSSSSSS” as they smoldered against the heat, slowly putting out the flames with each strike. Unfortunately this was not enough, for his assault only seemed to make the beast madder, and with Matthew’s life on the line, he needed to do more, and fast. Ignoring everything else, he called forth , Moe, his right upper mechanical arm, and like a cowboy, twirled it over his head like a lasso to build up its force. Then with a little hip action for luck, Moe shot down like a bolt of lightning. Followed by an ever increasing loud clinking sound it continued until reaching the General’s neck, at which point it wrapped around it not once not twice but three times. Now with everything on the line, Jack pulled back on Moe with everything he had, even repositioning his two Jet Thrusting arms for more leverage. In effect the General let out a primal roar in pain as he was pulled back only a few feet. For with its massive strength it fought against the four armed fighter with everything he had. But hopefully those few feet would be enough as he yelled to Matthew, “Matthew! Get out of there quick! I don’t think I could hold him back any more!” But the fact was, no matter how much it took, he would pull the fiery beast back until his friend was safe, and then and only then would he let go!
The flaming beast was still attempting to claw at the magical victim that was stuck under it's weight, but was restrained by Jack who was lifting it off of his friend. Mister Surreal had just enough space under the beast to crawl his way our from underneath its viscous claws. The fiery lion continued to roar with the flames of its body only continuing grow hotter as the amount of rage that it felt increased due to having lost its pray. It struggled further to escape the grasp of Jack, but while it was making it immensely difficult for it to be restrained by any means, the mechanical arms were able to withhold the lion form escaping its confinement. Mister Surreal got up and began to get ready for his next course of action, using his property ring he made the appropriate had gestures for the spell that he needed to cast. "Jack, move!" At that moment, he fired a blast of snow and ice that would cover entire lion in ice, making it look as if it were a sculpture that was carved out of a glacier. The sorcerer then turned to his friend. "Thank you.", he said respectfully.
The ice on the hybrid began to crack with large portions of the lion's encasing becoming shattered, it seemed as though there was a type of power within it that was causing it to break. Mister Surreal raised his arms in a defensive position, getting ready for the possibility of the general attacking the two heroes in one more attempt to defeat them. After few moments, the casing broke and the form of their enemy was now revealed to be the human appearance of the general. "It would seem that after sub-zero temperatures consumed him completely, the spell wore off.", Mister Surreal said as he looked down at the general. He had gone back to exactly how he was before he had transformed himself into the burning lion, before he was able to take on two very powerful enemies. Mister Surreal was quite pleased with the results that they had just obtained after this battle with the general, they now knew a way that they could do to deal with the rest of the lions that were on the battlefield. "All we have to do now is do the same of the rest of them and they will be neutralized.", the magic user said.
Mister Surreal asked for the brush from Jack so that he could see if there was any use left in the seemingly dead object, Mister Surreal had a new plan in mind for what he was going to do with the brush. After examining it briefly by looking over the entire thing, he believed that he may still be able to use after all. "There may be a way for us to defeat them, but you need to get down when I give you the signal.", he told his friend as he explained what he was going to do. Once he was finished giving all of the details of what he was going to trying to try in order to defeat the army of hybrids, he explained to Jack that he wanted him get ready for his next attack. Mister Surreal wasn't sure if there was any energy left inside of the brush itself, but he did now that because of the type magical artifact that it was it would serve well as being an amplifier for whatever power was being sent through it. At this time, the army of hybrids found the location of the heroes and made their way to them with violent intent. Mister Surreal flew up into the air once again in a similar way to how he had before as he was about launch a more effective attack.
"Now!", he said as he instructed Jack to get down so that he would be unaffected by what the sorcerer would do next to the army of lions. Mister Surreal hoped that he did heed his warning, he did not want his friend to be injured in anyway as a result of his next attack. After Jack was given enough time to get down, the mage blasted yet another wave of power over the area, except this time it was a wave of ice that was sent across all corners of the battlefield. The army of hybrids were stopped dead in their tracks as they came into contact with the icy attack, slowing down to a halt due to the freezing temperatures causing them to be frozen in a stream of ice. All of the lions could be heard roaring as they tried to fight against the spell that was taking away all movement that they were still able to muster, but they did so with little to no success. In just a couple of seconds after they were all covered by the attack, they had become frozen and robbed of all momentum that they had. The sound of ice cracking as it contracted filled the air, the entire environment fell quite with nothing but the continuous breaking that signified the defeat of their enemies. And not too long after, the statues of frozen lions turned back into humanoids.
It appeared that their enemies had finally been defeated after all of the trouble that the duo had gone through in order to best them in battle, all of them were now on the ground and in an exhausted state. However, a few of them seemed to be still conscious and still had the ability to make one final act of rebellion against their enemies. General Drude was the first to display this. "Well, played...We'll be seeing you soon...", he said as he casted a spell and vanished from the sight of the heroes, followed by a few other soldiers who were also in the condition to escape. "We'll go after them soon enough, but for now I think it is for the best that we deal with the task at hand.", Matthew said in an exhausted manner. He was in no condition to be chasing after anymore enemies, all he wanted to do now resolve the problems that he had direct control over at the moment. He looked around at the battlefield of unconscious solders, knowing what he should do with the rest of them. He twirled his hand and dumped the rest of them into a few portals leading to prison that was designed for magical criminals, having them drop through them one by one. Once he was finished, he looked back at his friend once again. "Thank you for the help, without you none of this would have worked. Unfortunately, not all of use fared well.", he said looking at the deceased dragon.
Already Jack could feel the heat coming off the Lion, even from a distance. As his two mechanical arms were wrenched around the beast’s neck, pulling back with all their worth, the Lion responded with more heat. For the hotter the General burned, the more raw power it possessed. By now Jack was sweating from pores he didn’t even know he had, while dripping pools from his brow. His two stooges were doing their best to absorb the kinetic energy, radiating from off the heat, but the beast was still burning like a sun. By now Jack’s armpits had soaked through his coat, as well as a fresh stain behind his back. But as long as his friend was in danger, he would never stop. Already his human muscles were flexing despite the fact it was his mechanical arms at work, but with every passing seconds he pulled back more. Then just when he felt he could do no more, Matthew shouted from below, “Jack, move!” With full confidence in his friend he uncoiled his two stooges, still glowing with a red hot glare from the fire, just in time to watch Matthew cast a spell of snow and ice. Just as Jack smirked, “Go get him sport!” the giant Lion was encased in a shell of ice as if it was carved out of a glacier. Within seconds the fire was extinguished, without any fuss, and little to no smoke, and just as the magician finished casting his spell he respectfully turned to Jack and said, “Thank you.”
Still hovering in the air on thrusters, Jack watched as the Lion/Human soldiers fell back, in fear over the materialization of snow. In their red soulless eyes they seemed lost as their fearless leader was now trapped in a block of ice. Still, Jack felt it necessary to fire a few blast from his free mechanical arms, just a few feet in front of them, in a wave of suppressing fire. But despite the heroes momentary advantage, he knew the safest place in this fight would be by his friends side, where together they could possibly get a win. After a quick shift from his two lower mechanical arms, he safely landed next to Matthew just in time to use the bad pun, “Well it looks like things are cool down here,” then silently moaned over how bad a quip it was. Suddenly the iceberg began to break beginning with a huge crack forming down the middle. In seconds hundreds of little fissures spread out until the whole thing broke apart. In an instant, tiny shards of ice flew everywhere and as the last shard flew away, there standing in the middle of the field was the General, but in human form and much much weaker. As he fought hard just to stand up, his hair was now a bright white as his skin resembled that of an albino. His legs wobbly and weak. It took everything the man had inside not to fall down to the ground and pass out. It was at that moment Matthew realized the full implications of his spell and casually remarked, "It would seem that after sub-zero temperatures consumed him completely, the spell wore off." But as the General’s men witnessed the horrifying defeat he took, they seemed to rally together in his defense.
By now the Lion/Human hybrids soldiers were preparing for a counter strike, as they rallied behind one another with their spears aiming forward. In defense Jack stood by his friend, with all four stooges at the ready, with each snapping their three pronged tips together, in an impressive show of strength. At the time he was unaware that his friend Matthew was conceiving a plan, and as such he tried to raise his hopes with a quick, “Don’t worry Matt, I got your back no matter what!” But as the soldiers slowly moved forward, filled with a blood lust look in their eyes, it was then the Sorcerer Supreme knew what must be done. To Jack’s surprise, the first thing Matthew did was ask for the brush, to which he proudly handed it over with a quick, “Sure take the darn thing, it givesme the willies.” Then In a voice filled with reassurance the Magician informed Jack, "There may be a way for us to defeat them, but you need to get down when I give you the signal." followed by going into great detail of his plan. But as Jack was a simple fellow,and the Lion/Human hybrids soldiers were closing in, he abruptly stopped Mathew in mid sentence with a resounding, “If you have a plan, THEN JUST DO IT!” Wasting no more time, the Sorcerer Supreme elegantly levitated himself above the battlefield, drawing all eyes upon him, and with both hands raised at the ready, he informed Jack it was on, with one simple word, “NOW!”
Following orders, he placed himself behind Matt as he quickly plopped to the floor. Then with the aid of all four stooges, he shrouded himself underneath them as he formed a makeshift shield out of their steel. By layering one over the other, he continued extending them out until he was safely covered head to toe. Outside the safety of his shell, he could hear what sounded like a return of the ice age, as the sound of unrelenting wind bellowed in the distance. At the same time he heard the unmistakable sound of Lion’s roaring in pain followed by men screaming in agony. In the end all went a deathly silent, leading Jack to look up from the safety of his shell. Before him was a new ice age, as every soldier was encased in a block of ice. The place was so cold that even from a distance Jack could see his breath before him. But just like the General, the soldiers soon began breaking through the ice, only to return back to their human forms, battered and beaten. Immediately Jack shouted with joy, “You did it Surreal, you kicked thoseKitties claws. I knew you could doit!” as he looked out across the soldiers that were to weak to stand. But a midst all the chaos going on around them, the General refused to admit defeat, and as he hobbled his way before his men he gloated back at the heroes, “Well, played!” followed by a slow sarcastic clap. Then before anyone could say another word, he waved his good arm in the air, to cast a spell of vanishing. In an instant he and his conscious men were wisped away in the wind, like flakes of white dust, until all signs of them were gone. Even their four wheeled cars and heavy gear disappeared into nothingness, as if they had never been there. All that was left was one big confused Jack and an exhausted magician.
Filled with hundreds of why and hows, Jack was about to go into a tirade of question, but it was Mister Surreal who spoke up first. Weak and weary he finds the strength to utter the words, "We'll go after them soon enough, but for now I think it is for the best that we deal with the task at hand." as he turns his attention to the unconscious soldiers left behind. But even as he waves his hand thus sending the fallen to a separate portal, leading to a prison that was designed for magical criminals, Jack could see the pain in his eyes. It was clear to him that the Magician was tapped out, pushed way to far beyond his extremes, and as much as Jack wanted to coddle him like a child, he knew he had to let him stand on his own feet. Unsure whether to pat him on his back or offer a fist bump, Jack fell back on a tired cliché, “You did it sport, You saved the day.” His voice then turns to a more parental tone mixed with love and concern, “You should be proud of yourself,....because I sure am!” But without skipping a beat, Matthew responded back with a simple heart felt, "Thank you for the help, without you none of this would have worked. Unfortunately, not all of us fared well.", as he looked down upon the deceased dragon laying at their feet.
Once again Jack didn’t know what to say other than a saddened, “Yeah, It was a shame the fellow died, I was just beginning to like him.” Suddenly the brush in Mister Surreal’s hand began to glow, with a mystic aura around the handle. Where once stood an etching of a noble Knight of the round table began morphing into the image of Matthew standing proudly in his sanctum. At the same time a light resonated around the Dragon giving off a warm and pleasant feeling, that washed over him in rippling waves. Then in a brilliant display of bright colors the Dragon opens its eyes, raised his head to the sky and lets loose a roaring explosion of fire. Immediately Jack falls back, confused and somewhat intimidated, only to watch as the Dragon was humbling itself. Lowering its head to Matthew’s eye level, it offers its claw in respect, extending one finger out for a handshake. “You Mister Surreal are the new protector of the brush, and as such I am honor bound to serve you. For as long as you are the owner of the artifact I am yours to command.” The Dragon then let out a puff of smoke in the shape of a ring that circled around the now brighter than ever brush, as a sign of his loyalty. He then turned his attention to Jack who was now flabbergasted over the whole deal, and addressed him with respect. “and to you squire Jack, for your part in the recovery of the brush, I have a gift for you.” Suddenly a small tear formed in the corner of the Dragon’s right eye, and just as it was about to fall from it’s cheek, a light formed around it. It them miraculously harden into a dime sized crystal, that floated outwards to Jack’s hand. Then as Jack reaches out to grasp it, the Dragon speaks up again. “To you I give you the gift of a Dragon’s tear. Guard it well and use it wisely!” With that said, the Dragon took its place at Matthew’s side were it perched awaiting its next command. As Jack, he was left utterly complexed to the point he awkwardly leans into Matt’s ear, only to ask, “Um, what exactly is a Dragon’s tear??”
After he had finished dropping the last hybrid through a portal to their magical prison, Mister Surreal let his head down while wiping his brow from all of the sweat that had accumulated over the course of the whole battle. That spell to a lot of effort out of him, he hadn't fired a blast that powerful in quite sometime. He knew that General Drude was still gone and that he needed to be recovered as soon as possible, but he needed to get some rest before he would embark on another adventure. Jack was very happy with what Matthew had accomplished on the battlefield, vocalizing how proud he was of his magical friend through congratulations and other signs of approval. "Thank you Jack. But this was a team effort.", Matthew said as he smiled partially at his hugely supportive friend. Before he made any other responses, the glow of most mystical energy began to envelope the handle of the brush, promptly catching the eye of Mister Surreal. Matthew looked down at the handle and saw what had been there originally, the image of a knight at a noble table.
However, the image stared to morph with the energy and took the form of what seemed to be Mister Surreal standing inside of the sanctum with a look a great satisfaction. Soon afterwards, the dragon's lifeless body began to glow as it was also covered with colorfully vibrant energy. Not long afterwards, the dragon that was once the terror of the very battlefield that it collapsed on got up and expanded its mighty wings with all of its strength and glory. After approaching the two heroes, it went on to explain that after the Mister Surreal used the brush to defeat de-power the last of the army he had been given the responsibility of being the new the protector of the brush and would in turn have the services of the dragon. It afterwards bestowed upon Jack a single tear from its blazing eyes, it formed a crystal like structure that was large enough to fill the palm of the average human hand. Jack appeared to be grateful for what he had been given, but at the same time had a face that projected a certain cluelessness that Mister Surreal was becoming very familiar with. Mister Surreal leaned to his friend as he gave the needed information. "A dragons's tear is one of the most obscure and revered rewards that a person could ever obtain. Not only is it a sign of immense respect, but it also an object of great power. A dragon's tear in this manner is used to protect the owner as well as enhance the odds of success of whatever they do, among other things. I would put that in a safe place."
The dragon raised it heads as its eyes stayed on to the two heroes, it gazing at them with the mutual admiration that had been formed over the small amount of time that they had had known each other. "These objects would do you well, if you use them correctly. I have faith that you will do the right thing." The Dragon continued to raise its head as it looked to the sky with a deep amount of pleasure that from the scenery. The environment that they were placed in was quite beautiful when put into the right conditions. Mister Surreal looked down at his brush and studied the new engravings on it as he gripped the handle with much joy and pride. "Thank you, this honor is one of the greatest that I have ever received, I will take great care of this.", Matthew said before he bowed his head to the great dragon. He knew what kind of responsibility that he had been given with this new artifact in his possession. The dragon followed his bow with a slight nod of the head as it closed its eyes, replicating the amount of respect and great fullness that the sorcerer had given him. It turned to Jack once gain after the exchange with the sorcerer had been complete. "And the same applies to you eight armed gentleman." After the exchange went on for a little bit longer, the dragon to positioned itself in such a way that it would be able to make a graceful leave. "I thank you again for your services and I wish you good luck with whatever it is that you hope to achieve in the future".
The dragon's beautiful wings spread apart once again, causing it's shiny scales to reflect the light of the sun's rays in a fantastic manner. It rose slowly as it extended all of its legs as well as its neck to their full lengths, the dragon was now standing at a height of about four stories tall. The majesty of the great beast was more than enough to astonish even the magic user, a person who had become used to the amount of extraordinary things that the universe had to offer him. Now going upwards in powerful and belittling manner, the dragon caused the grass in the field and the jungle right next to it to bow to its magnitude as it wings created a small hurricane. Mister Surreal covered his face as a bunch of debris flew into his direction, the large gust of wind that the dragon had created caused it to be very difficult for him to see what was happening. After the dragon had flown high enough that the field didn't toss specs of dirt and grass in all directions, Matthew took his hands away from his face, only to see that the dragon was now leaving the area. "Stay on this path and you just might succeed." And with that, the top of the temple reopened as the dragon flew starlight down into it. Diapering form the sight of the heroes.
"It's hard to believe that it's still a baby.", said Mister Surreal.
Upon hearing the magnitude of greatness blessed upon him as he excepted the Dragon’s tear, Jack was speechless. His eyes were wide with wonder and his face was a blank page, and all he could manage to say was, “I wish I had something for you.” At that point he remembered he had some butterscotch in his pocket, and like a bumbling child he began searching for it. Already he was elbow deep into the folds of his trademark trench-coat, fumbling around keys he had no use for and some week old recites. In the end he managed to pull out a piece of hard candy, still in the wrapper, but with a trace or two of lint around the edges. Hoping to convey his deepest respect, he offers the candy in his hand palm out, saying, “Its not muchbut I would be honoredto give you a piece of hard candy,” followed by “...you do like hard candy don’t you?” But by now the Dragon had moved on, proudly informing the heroes, "These objects would do you well, if you use them correctly.I have faith that you will do the right thing." Instantly Jack discarded the butterscotch back into his pocket, hoping not to look the fool, while he was nodding along in agreement as Mister Surreal replied back, "Thank you, this honor is one of the greatest that I have ever received, I will take great care of this." Feeling it was now his time to speak, Jack cleared his throat and was just about to go on about how honored he was, when the Dragon interrupted him with an, "And the same applies to you eight armed gentleman."
With that said, the Dragon positioned itself in such a way that it would be able to make a graceful leave, then in a voice drenched in respect, so elegantly put it "I thank you again for your services and I wish you good luck with whatever it is that you hope to achieve in the future". The Dragon then fully extended its wings out over the battlefield to the point it blocked out the sun. With one flap it shot into the air, stirring up a massive wind below it. The trees bent to a side as the grass and dirt spun around as the Dragon’s wings created a small hurricane. Even Jack was caught up in the storm, forcing him to extend his two lower mechanical arms for support, as he dug them both into the ground as make shift crutches. Covering his face from the swirling debris, he watched as the beast circled the temple several times over, almost as if it was trying to merge with the massive structure of rock and mortar. But despite the massive winds being blown around he could still hear the magnificent beast as he blessed them with wisdom, "Stay on this path and you just might succeed." Suddenly the Dragon took a nose dive right above the hole in the temple’s roof and in one glorious swoop, it settled inside, disappearing from the heroes sight. At the same time the broken walls of the temple began to regrow, as rock grew upon rock until once again the temple was sealed up as it was before. It was then Matthew made the comment "It's hard to believe that it's still a baby." to which Jack declared back, “What? You mean that thing was just a …...BABY!?!?”
But before his friend could answer, the sounds of several sirens were blaring off in the distance. At the same time he could see the flashing of red and blue lights coming down the road. Within seconds the unmistakable sight of police cars and other emergency vehicles were roaring forward with their tires kicking up a ton of dust behind them. Above them flew a squad of police helicopters making way for the news ones right behind them. It was clear to Jack that within a few minutes he would be swarmed by a ton of annoying people asking him questions he didn’t have an answer to. Looking for the nearest exit, he fidgets around a bit, then finally addresses the situation. “UmMatt,Listen, I don’twant tobe...” he makes finger quotes,”...that guy... but I really don’t want to be here when the police show up.” He then looks over his shoulder to see how close they were, then goes on, “I owe youmy life, and you know that,so if you ever...” his voice deepens, “..ever ...need any help, you know how to call me!” He then moves in for a handshake, but realizing how important Matthew was to him, he chooses to turn it into a firm and bonding, ‘Bro-Hug!’ Hiding his slowly approaching tears he offers Matt one last goodbye nod, then turns away, only to make one massive leap into the sky. “So long Matt, and thanks for everything.” Then as planned he positions all four of his mechanical arms around him, and after a quick blast of energy from each of them, he soars through the sky on thrusters. Now looking back over the battlefield there were no signs of an invading army only, layers and layers of snow and ice. Oddly enough it was enough to make him softly chuckle, while asking himself, “I wonder ifhe will be able to explaineverything?”
Log in to comment