Chapter 36 #2
Ashure’s eye twitched. “You’re not backup—you’re in trouble! And so is my wayward wife!” He stopped, inhaled deeply, then pointed a stiff finger at them. “Stay below deck. Do not get in the way. And for the love of all that is still afloat, find Tonya and drag her with you!”
“Aye-aye, Cap’n,” the girls chorused in unison.
Ashure narrowed his eyes, staring at them suspiciously before he whirled away, shouting for the men to prepare for battle as he strode for the upper deck.
Jade grinned at her sister as Amber uncrossed her fingers from behind her back. The second he disappeared, they grew serious.
“Alright, deployment time,” Jade said, unzipping the oversized duffel bag they’d smuggled aboard.
“Now those look interesting. Might you be helpin’ the Cap’n win this battle?” Dapier asked from the shadows. The short, round first mate scurried forward, eyeing them with curiosity. “Do you need some help?”
“Sure. Would you like to test out the Sneeze Burst Mk 2?” Jade quipped, tossing him a flash grenade filled with black sneeze powder.
He turned it over. “What’s it do?”
“It’s a nonlethal way to combat your opponents,” she explained.
“Yeah, we prefer not to maim and kill if we can avoid it,” Amber said.
“But we are all for winning. The SBMk2 makes everyone within twenty feet sneeze uncontrollably for at least ten minutes straight,” she explained.
“It also causes disorientation due to watery eyes, burning in their nose and throat, and a general desire to curl up into a ball and wish they were dead,” Amber added.
“That sounds delightful,” Dapier beamed, pocketing it and waving to other members of his crew. “Do you have more?”
“Pfft. Do we have more?” She snorted, lifting her hand and snapping her fingers. “Amber?”
Amber grinned and started pulling items out one at a time, handing them out with a description, instruction, and an occasional cautionary warning about the potential hazards for each item.
“What’s this one?” a low, gruff voice asked.
Jade grinned at the pirate with the veiled face. “Hi, Tonya. This is a Glitter Bomber. It temporarily causes blindness due to the psychedelic flashes of color, disorientation due to the reflective sparkles, and long-term shame because this stuff just doesn’t wash out and gets everywhere!”
“Sweet!” Tonya pulled down the scarf she was wearing over the lower half of her face and grinned.
“Be careful. Ashure knows you are somewhere on board,” Jade warned.
“Thanks. I have to keep an eye on the enchanted dork. I love him so much, but sometimes he can be reckless,” Tonya murmured, looking at Ashure with worry and warmth as he shouted orders.
“We’ll help you protect him. Blackheart and his evil sister won’t know what hit them,” she promised, testing the weight of her Bubble Binder cannon.
“Excuse me. Diaper told me to come get a nice, shiny weapon,” a pirate behind Tonya said.
“Here you go,” Amber replied, holding out a slender gun with a large hopper.
“What’s it do?” the pirate asked, clutching the Sticky Popcorn Cannon and looking like he wasn’t sure if he’d won a prize—or been cursed.
“Shoot any threat, and it’s guaranteed to attract sea monkeys,” Amber promised.
The pirate’s eyes widened, and he gave them a snaggle-toothed grin before he nodded and hurried back to his post.
“I’ll see you two later. Whatever you do, stay safe. While this may seem exciting, it is also very dangerous,” Tonya murmured.
“We will. If things get crazy, our dragons will take over,” Amber promised.
“Yeah, they are good at keeping us safe,” Jade added.
Tonya breathed out a sigh of relief, rolled her shoulders, and covered her face before she turned and stalked towards Ashure with a determined stride. They watched her go before Amber turned and looked in the now almost empty bag.
“Is there anything else?” Amber asked.
“Just this,” she said, lifting a small crate.
“Holy crud, you didn’t,” Amber groaned. “You brought a batch of Demented Symbiots?”
Jade grinned, unapologetic. “Yep. You can never go wrong with deranged little creatures who scream battle chants in gibberish and fight dirty.”
Amber’s eyebrows shot up, and she giggled. “They’ll pair nicely with the sea monkeys.”
Jade clutched her chest. “Don’t threaten me with a good time.”
She turned and slung the Bubble Binder over her shoulder as shouts and the first sounds of explosions lit the air. She made her way to the stern. Wind lashed her cheeks as sea mist stung her eyes, each step up the final stairs echoing like a drumbeat in her chest.
And then she saw it.
Mere hundreds of yards from them, the sea was filled with ships—twisted silhouettes of skeletal masts and tattered sails.
The largest—Blackheart’s flagship—loomed like a leviathan reborn, stitched from the bones of beasts and crowned in green fire.
Creatures flitted above it: dragons, wyverns, and serpentine flyers with glowing eyes and jagged wings.
Jade’s breath caught. This battle was nothing like the space missions they’d trained for, but fear had never stopped her before.
She was a Valdier dragon-shifter. A princess of the royal house.
Daughter of Trelon and Cara Reykill. And a Dragonling!
She wasn’t going to hide when the fate of the world—any world—was at stake.
Now we fight, her dragon snarled.
The roar of her dragon took her by surprise. She could feel it rising inside her before it cascaded over their enemies. Pink and rose-colored scales rippled across her skin. Below her, she could see Amber’s dark red scales doing the same
She lifted the Bubble Binder when she noticed dark shadows rising from the evil pirate’s ships. She tested the cannon’s balance.
“How good do you think you would be at firing this with your claws?” she asked her dragon, her eyes narrowing.
Better than you, her dragon sniffed. I can hold with four limbs. You only hold with two.
“Let’s test to see how good you are,” she snickered as she transformed.
A burst of pink shimmered around her, and in her place, a sleek determined dragon stood—scales glowing like pink opal spun with starlight, horns curved elegantly back, her wings unfolding with a powerful snap.
She gripped the Bubble Binder in her talons and launched herself off the deck just as the first cannonball whistled through the sky.
It missed by inches.
Ha! Missed me! she roared, spinning into the air.
All around her, chaos erupted.
Amber’s Spider Blaster 5000 whined to life—tiny arachnoids flinging themselves at the enemy, webbing down crew members mid-step as the first of the ships nearly collided with the Sea Wasp.
Dapier was tossing the SBMk2 towards the boarding monsters. There was a brief explosion before the sounds of screams as the black pepper powder coated the invading forces, sending them into sneezing, burning agony.
She grinned as sea monkeys erupted from the waves, lured by the sweet, buttery scent from the Sticky Popcorn cannon. The mischievous sea creatures scurried up the side of the evil pirate ship and pounced on the unsuspecting pirates trying to slough the kernels off their bodies.
In the center of it all, Jade circled and swooped, her Bubble Binder releasing bursts of glowing orbs that snared enemy dragons and Elementals in mid-air.
A flying goblin screamed in rage, then promptly fell victim to one of her bubbles, banging helplessly on the inside like a disgruntled bee as it dropped to the ocean below where it floated away on the surface of the water.
“Jade! Right flank!” Amber shouted from the crow’s nest, releasing a volley of crackling lightning that blinded a trio of flying monsters.
“I see them!” Jade veered hard, twisted midair, and fired.
The cannon thumped.
A massive blue bubble burst outward—then caught two Elementals mid-transformation. They froze, suspended mid-smoke shift, trapped like snow globes.
“Look! There’s Zohar and Bálint!” Amber shouted with glee. “Roam! Woah! He’s-he’s growing! Spring doesn’t look too happy with him.”
“I think I see Alice and Adaline on one of the bad pirate ships! Oh! There’s Phoenix!” Jade called out, swerving. “The gang’s all here.”
“I don’t see Jabir!” Amber hollered back.
Jade didn’t see him either, but if the others were here, Jabir was sure to be somewhere. Her gaze followed Phoenix and the other Dragonlings as they joined forces with Ashure’s crew, who were fighting like—well, like pirates!
She laughed, her heart soaring as she weaved her way through the madness.
They’re here.
The Dragonlings are together again!
There was no way anyone—not Blackheart, not Saldusa, not even the threat of being grounded for eternity—could stop the Dragonlings now.