Project J and the Time Walker

Chapter 4 There's a 24k Dragon in the Air

Chapter 4
There’s a 24k Dragon in the Air

M I K E

After I drank the medicine I made to reduce the dizziness, I noticed Ronnie was fidgeting his fingers non-stop.

It had been a week after the new school year started, which means that it was our time to visit the Crystal University.

Mr. Alacantara—Nicky’s dad—volunteered to bring the whole club to the Crystal University.

He had short, black hair, accompanied with his emerald-green eyes. To be honest, he looked like a male version of Nicky. He was well built because of the time he worked as a smith and as a member of the Project J.

The van we were riding almost looked like an ordinary van. Unlike other vans, Mr. Alacantara’s van was a bit larger and it also had its own protective barrier. I figured out that there were other hidden features of the van, but Mr. Alacatara didn’t want to reveal all his hidden cards.

Well, that makes sense. Now I am really sure that he is part of the Project J.

I was sitting beside Ronnie and Calyx—while Harvy, Sally, and August were sitting in front of us. On the other hand, Cadence, May, and Riesa were in the second row, while Nicky and her dad were sitting in the first.

We were traveling on a road towards Crystal University. The road was surrounded nothing but trees, which gave me a creepy vibe. It was still six-thirty in the morning, but the sun was already waving at us.

I was not that dumb enough to not noticed Ronnie’s weird actions. He was acting weird, to the point that I even wanted to change sits so I could get away from him.

Even though there was an air conditioner in the van, Ronnie was sweating abnormally. I sensed that he was so nervous for some sort of reason, but I just tried my best to not get involved from what was happening in his mind.

“You’re acting weird, Ronnie. What’s going on with you?” Calyx whispered.

Ronnie didn’t answer Calyx’s question, instead he just gave Calyx a weird looking bracelet. The bracelet looked like my silver bracelet that was storing my bow, but it had a yellow-colored gem in the center.

Calyx awkwardly picked up the bracelet and after that, Ronnie gave me a bracelet that looked like the one he gave to Calyx. After the two of us wore our bracelets, Ronnie brought out another identical bracelet and wore it himself.

“I borrowed this bracelets to Professor James, so don’t even try to brake it or it will be a big trouble. If you wear this bracelet, only those who wears identical ones can hear what you are speaking. It means, only the three of us can hear what I am saying right now.”

I looked around inside of the van and noticed that no one was looking at us, like they couldn’t heard what Ronnie was talking about. As I looked around inside of the van, I noticed Mr. Alacantara adjusted the mirror of the van and narrowed his emerald-like eyes for a moment.

Maybe it is just my imagination.

I narrowed my eyes after I noticed something weird about Mr. Alcanatara, but before I could even dug deeper in my thoughts, Ronnie got my attention.

“It’s little embarrassing to say this but . . .” Ronnie began.

It turned out that Ronnie had a crush on Nicky the whole time. That was the main reason why he looked agitated was he wanted to make a good impression on Nicky’s dad. Unfortunately, he didn’t knew what to do, so he was asking us for help.

Since I was dating with Riesa, he thought that it would be a great idea to get advice from me. Unfortunately, due to my weak social skills I didn’t really knew how to give advices to someone.

“Please, Mike. Help me!” Ronnie begged as he was covering his mouth to not get the others’ attention.

“But I don’t know how to give advices. I think you should just talk to Nicky’s dad and tell him what you feel about his daughter.”

“Are you insane? Why in the world should I do that?” Ronnie shouted before he turned his eyes on Calyx who was sitting beside me. “I know you have experience in dating, Calyx. Please help me!”

Calyx just sighed and closed his eyes. After a few seconds of silence, Calyx opened his eyes and said the words, “I think the simplest way to solve your problem is to just be yourself. Who cares if Nicky’s dad don’t like in the first place?”

I have no idea that Calyx can give love advices. I mean, he looks like he even have more experience than me.

I nodded in agreement.

However, Ronnie shouted, “Me!”

He then started to cradled his head in frustration and stress. Calyx just reached out his hands and patted Ronnie in the back. However, before he could even calm down Ronnie, something strange occurred.

All of sudden, the van shook intensely. I thought at first that it might be we stumbled upon something. However, when I looked outside, I noticed that even the trees were shaking as well.

“What’s going on?” Harvy exclaimed.

Ronnie immediately grabbed the bracelets that Calyx and I were wearing before he putted back the bracelets, including his, inside of small box. After all, Ronnie would be stuck cleaning in the Smiting and Enchantments Building if he messed up.

Before any of us could even figure out what was going on, a dragon landed in front of us.

The dragon had golden scales and bright-blue eyes. It wasn’t large as the dragons I watched from the cartoon movies, but it was larger than the van.

The dragon tried sniffed the van, but the moment he touched its barrier, the dragon was electrocuted. The dragon groaned in pain but after it regained back it senses, it tried to torch us to death.

Mr. Alcantara pushed some buttons in the van and all of suddenly, the van teleported a few meters away from the dragon. Before I could even react from the sudden teleportation that made my stomach upside-down, Mr. Alcantara shouted the words, “Get out of here, kids! I’m just going to have a little fun with our new guest.”

All ten of us immediately went out of the van, even though that we were feeling sick.  Mr. Alcantara then drove the van towards the dragon at top speed. Before even van crash at the dragon, the van then suddenly turned into something I didn’t expect. The van transformed into a robot and punched the dragon in its face.

The robot was green like the van. It looked a lot like one of those transforming cars I watched in the TV as a kid.

I noticed the front sit was located in the chest of the green robot, where Mr. Alacantara was controlling the robot. It had thick, green arms and two wheels were located in its shoulders, while the other four remaining wheels were located in the legs.

The dragon groaned and breathe fire towards the van-ehem, the robot. Luckily, the fire didn’t affect the robot what so ever. Instead, it sent another punch towards the gigantic lizard. The dragon used its sharp claws and fangs, but Mr. Alcantara just avoided all of its attacks easily.

After a few minutes of fighting, Mr. Alcantara finally pinned the gigantic lizard down in the ground. Unfortunately, before he could even finish of the dragon, a powerful blast of special energy hit the robot. Even though that the barrier was deactivated because of the transformation, the blast didn’t even made a single dent in the robot.

“Should we help?” August asked as he was holding his golden spear in his right hand.

“Let him have his fun,” Nicky simply answered as the ten of us were watching the scene behind the bushes.

Seeing Mr. Alcantara’s overwhelming power, I saw Nicky’s point.

Then suddenly, another blast from the skies hit Mr. Alacantara. Luckily though, it also didn’t made any dent. Trees suddenly moved around the robot and tried to wrap the robot. However, Mr. Alcantara escaped easily thanks to the robot’s strength.

From the skies, a blinding light appeared that made my eyes closed. I tried my best to take a peak, but the light was too bright for me. All I could here were clashing of metal, but a few seconds, the light faded.

“What was that?” May shouted as he was rubbing his eyes because of the bling light that came out from the skies.

After I rubbed my eyes because of the light, I took a peak from the bushes and saw Mr. Alacantara’s robot facing a guy with blond hair. The guy was wearing a white uniform decorated with light-blue crystal-like designs.

“Who are you? Based on your uniform you’re from the Crystal University,” Mr. Alactara’s voice asked.

The guy held his golden sword even tighter. His hair was messy because of the fight, but I still saw his bright-blue eyes that were hiding behind his blond hair.

“You’re the one who’s trespassing! Who are you?” the guy asked back as held his sword up in the air.

The golden sword then produced golden light that was even powerful than the last one.

Before the two could even kill each other, I summoned my bow and quiver. I loaded my bow with an arrow and filled it with my own special energy, before I lunched it to the sky , causing an explosion that caught everyone’s attention.

I slowly stood up with my eyes were glaring at the two. The moment I looked around I noticed that I successfully got everyone’s attentions, including the blond guy and Mr. Alacntara. The others on the other hand were staring at me confusedly, but I just ignored them.

Mr. Alcantara’s robot faced me while its left arm was still pointed at the blond guy. “What are you doing, kid? That’s dangerous you know.”

“Mike?” the blond guy confusedly asked.

“Finn, how are you doing?” I asked.

“Do you know him, kid?” Mr. Alactara asked.

I nodded as a reply before the others who were hiding in the bushes stood up. All of them looked surprised after they saw Finn holding a golden sword. Finn awkwardly waved at them, but Calyx only managed to wave back with an awkward smile in his face.

“He’s the one who I was talking about, Dad! He was kidnapped by . . .” Nicky awkwardly looked at Cadence before she continued what she was talking about, “. . .  Fridaca along with the twelve of us.”

“Dad?” Finn reacted as he scratched his head with confusion.

“I see now,” Mr. Alactara said before the robot transformed back into a van.

“That’s a van?” Finn’s face expression was a complete shock. Well, who could blame him?

The gang and I walked towards Mr. Alactara and Finn, with a relieved expression on our faces.

As anyone might guessed, Sally immediately ran towards Finn, and attempted to hug him. Finn immediately evade Sally’s sudden charge due to surprise, which made Sally tripped on the ground.

Laughter filled the forest as we watched Sally stood up, while pouting at us. Finn immediately helped Sally, which made Sally’s face blush like a tomato.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“We are at the Crystal University’s forest. We use this forest to train, that’s why I am hear.” Finn putted back his sword in its sheath. “I guess you guys are here for the crystal ball, aren’t you?”

“Indeed. We also here to check other things as well.” Cadence handed a piece of paper containing the things that Professor Villa wanted us to check for him.

Finn grabbed the paper and looked at it with his sky-blue eyes. He was nodding along why he was reading the paper, but the moment he read the last part of the letter, his eyebrows knitted. “The pillar? What’s that?”

“We don’t know as well. The professors strictly instructed us to not dig deeper about it, so I advise you to do the same.”

“That surely sounds like what Professor Villa would say.”

“I think you kids would be fine with this young man. I’ll be heading back to the Nightingale Academy now.” Mr. Alcantara entered the van, but before he drove back to the academy, he faced Finn. “I’m sorry for your protector, but considered me impressed by your special ability.”

“Don’t worry about my protector. He will be fine.”

Then suddenly, weird smoke suddenly came out from the dragon which covered my sight. The moment the smoke cleared, I saw a tiny white salamander in the ground. The reptile then walked towards Finn and jumped at his shoulder.

“He would grow back in his dragon form in no time.”

Nicky stepped forward and said, “Be careful, Dad.”

“Don’t worry about me.” He then faced Ronnie with a smile. “Good luck, young man. You have my blessing. I’m counting on you.” Mr. Alcantara then threw something towards Ronnie before he drove away towards the long road.

Ronnie looked at the thing his future father-in-law gave to him. He then widened his eyes as he stared at the silver bracelet with yellow gem in it. “H-He heard me?”

His voice was weak, but I could imagine that he was screaming internally. Calyx was trying to stop his laughter due ti Ronnie’s reaction, while a small smile formed on my face.