MASSIVE CREDIT TO @Da_KZNE on Twitter for this awesome origin story
The picture. He has been staring at it for the entire car ride. The faded colors and many wrinkles that show the time between the moment it was taken and moment it is currently being looked at now matters not to him, but the ones in the pic does. In it he sees himself. A small, blue dragon, playing playfully at a large football field together with another one of his kind. The other one would be mistaken for being black due to the faded colors, but he knows from memory that the other one is red. But even that is not quite his focus, even though it lies close to it. It's what they are focusing on in the picture: seemingly nothing. They are both running in circles for seemingly no reason, but he knows that something is there, something that made them this joyful...
"We're here", she says and stops the car in a abrupt enough manner to send his face into the glove compartment and open it, and appropriately takes to his face as he look as the small, fennec driver. "Bloody hell, Star! Don't stop the car like this! You're gonna knock me out cold of you keep up like that." "Fuck.... Sorry, Solo.", she says, while tending to the damage. "I'm just really nervous about what we're going to do." "I never said you had to go in there with me." Solo says, while grabbing a small mirror in the conveniently open glove compartment. In there, he sees that apart from a slightly bloody nose, even else is as it should be. His blue color, white hair, beaten down hoodie and torn backpack. "Again, let me remind you..." Star says, ripping Solo's attention away from the mirror onto her small figure. "We don't have to do this... Or rather we shouldn't. You know what he has done, and what he can do because of that. We should just leave it to those who knows how to appropriately handle this." "I know..." Solo says, cleaning the blood out of his nose with the sleeve of his hoodie. "But are they any better at handling this after that stuff at the prison" he says, while opening the door and getting out of the car, where she follows suit shortly after.
As they get out of the car, they get a better look at the empty field they're standing in front. "Are you even sure that he is here?" Star asks "Like... I get that you paid me a good amount, as I'm the only who has car but..." Her trail of thought gets lost as she notices Solo ignoring her, and goes into the empty field. "Oi!" she shouts up in a pitch typical of other fenics. "Are you even..." she shouts out while reaching for Solo's hand, but before she reaches him, he disappears into the field. It stops Star in her tracks as she tries to comprehend what just happened. She frantically looks around, shouting his name out while inching closer to the point where Solo disappeared. As she attempts to shout again, she gets pulled in, letting out a mix of Solo name and a scream while it happens.
As she gets pulled in, she immediately gets out of his grasps and ready to yell at him, but the surroundings takes her words out of her mouth. As she gancles around, she notices that the field she saw being empty just moments before, is not empty at all. A large, decrepit farm is what resides in, what appears to be, a large kind of dome. As she looks even further around, she notices how the dome pulsates with energy, constantly changing itself to stay in tune with the outside environment and blend in. The farm has not kept up with the outside environment. The main house has smashed windows, rottet wood and the front porch looking like it is ready to snap under the weight of a leaf. In front, is a tractor which is is no better shape, being more rust than metal as it stands, and beside the house is a large farm shed, that's only in marginally better shape than the rest.
After some time, she finally manages to mutter out a word. "Solo.... What the fuck is going on?" "Ok, Star..." he says, walking a bit closer. "Ever read the report from his prison escape?" "Yeah...." She says "They all burned up, or something like that. I didn't wanna bother reading it. I'm not good with that stuff." "I know..." Solo says back while scouring through his backpack. "But here's the thing: Nobody went aflame." Star gives him a confused look, as he proceeds to pull a set of pictures out of his bag. Star immediately recoils and looks away. "Don't... I don't need... " "I know..." Solo says back. "But there's no burn marks, as one would suspect from the records. Everyone knows about the radio calls, I don't think they just faked that." "So... " Star says, slowly sliding the pictures out of Solo's hands. "What do you expect happened instead?" "I dunno..." Solo says, while taking the pictures back in his back. "That still doesn't explain..." Star only manages to get a few of the words out before she is halted by a faint whimper from inside the shed.
As they inch closer, they start to notice the figure of a red dragon, sitting in a cradled position, silently whimpering. A step is taken. The details on his prisoner jacket becomes more noticeable. The initial on it are not understood by either of them, but it is in pristine condition, which is quite odd considering the hell that happened at the prison. Another step is taken. His whimper is not so much whimper, but a whisper. "They made me do it... They made me hurt them..." A third step is taken. The whimper stops as the red dragons ears shoot up. Solo and Star both stop in their step as all of them lock eyes with each other. Solo and Star barely manage to move another inch before the red dragon disappears in a puff of butterflies that zoom past them.
They both stand there in silence, with star being the first one to break it. "What the fuck was that!? Did he just become freaking butterflies?!" She takes to her head and starts walking around in circles whilst trying to comprehend everything that just happened to her at that moment and a few before. Solo, on the other hand, is simply staring down at the ground, giving out the occasional ear twitch in either direction. As Star is about to let out other burst of anger to quell her anxiety, Solo manages to react before her and cover her mouth, signaling her to keep quiet. She only lets out a quiet "What...?" before she starts to notice the same thing as Solo: The quiet steps of someone walking above them. She only manages to let out a few ear twitches before she notices the red dragon dropping down from above with a iron rod. She barely manages to scream before Solo gets her out of the way. Solo, Star and the red dragon all collide with the ground at the same time, with the dirt from the red dragons impact going all over the place.
Solo and Star only barely manage to collect themselves before the red dragon appears out of the dust cloud his impact created. As he gets ready to strike, Solo manages to mutter out a sentence that makes him hesitate. "Riodinidae", Solo manages to scream out, clutching Star for dear life. Solo opens his eyes slowly, noticing that the red dragon has haled has efforts. Not even a moment after, Solo gets off the ground and repeats himself. "Riodinidae, that's the name of the butterfly species. From the time we played at the football field." Solo quickly gets the falmed picture he looked at in his car before, and shows it to the red dragon. "Remember?... Everyone was wondering what we were doing. It was then you showed me this power of yours. That you could use it on other people..." The red dragon drops the iron bar he was holding in his hand and lets out a faint word: "...Solo". Solo hugs him, but the embrace is cut short by Star.
"You knew each other!?" She shouts out at both of them. "Fucking hell!! Why didn't you tell me any of this?! That you knew about all of this!??". Her voice almost breaks at the pent up anger, which almost makes the red dragon confront her, before Solo steps in between them. "Let her..." Solo tells the dragon. "She's... Just confused, like anyone else would be." Solo then turns over to Star, and lets out a slight sigh before speaking. "Yes... I knew of this. I knew that he was capable of some of this, which is why I just wandered in, but I didn't know the extent of his powers being able to do this. That you can trust me on." Star just looks down on the floor and turns on her heels before Solo continues. "And... It would just be easier not telling you than doing so, not to mention all the questions you would end up asking me." Star stops and lets out a small sigh before turning back to Solo. "I guess you know me best then, but let's get him in the car. Don't know how long it is going to take before unwanted people show up." Solo is taken quite aback by the sudden comment from her. "Didn't expect that from you at all." She snickers. "I don't expect that you planted to house you friend at your place either.", she says while getting her arm under the dragon. "I got a place. A small house at the outskirt of the city, out of anyone's radar. He can stay there as stuff cools down."
As they get him to lie on the backseat of the car, he starts muttering. "Star..." It catches her attention, and makes her look at him slightly concerned. "How do you know that?", she asks. "Bumper sticker. 'Star's therapy.' Quite a nice name you got for it." Taken aback by the sudden comment, she blushes slightly as she shifts her focus on getting the car running. "By the way..." he says, making her stop turning the key. "My name is Omni." She stalls a bit before muttering the name to herself, and then starts the engine, before driving of.
