Flame Rider II: Rise of Chaos

Battle Alert

‘I still don’t understand why we need to disgorge our Heart Stones,’ Ginny grumbled.

Blaze sighed, before glancing behind him, as the last of the DS troops that had been in here left. When he looked back at us, his face was sorrowful.

‘I had a vision,’ Blaze replied, ‘At least I think it was a vision. I saw you both die in it; and I’d rather not let that happen.’

‘If we were to disgorge our Heart Stones,’ I asked, ‘Then whom to would we give them to?’

‘Joseph and Carlos would look after them on Pluto,’ was Blaze’s reply.

‘Fine; if this makes you feel better, then I’ll do it,’ I growled, ‘But if anything happens to my Heart Stone, I will tear both of those idiots apart.’

Blaze stepped back, as Anna came forward. Ginny uncurled herself from where she was resting, and reached out with her neck, sniffing her Rider gently.

‘Do you agree with this?’ Ginny asked.

‘I do; Blaze’s memory may be fragmented,’ Anna said “But he definitely still has his intelligence.”

‘Intelligence that was acquired over years of pain and torture,’ I retorted, ‘He may have knowledge, but he doesn’t have the experience to use it.’

With that, I bent my head over Blaze’s shaking hands, and opened my maw wide. Blaze broke out in a cold sweat as I started to force the round stone out of my chest. I had originally thought that it was going to be quite easy, but as I soon discovered, it was the exact opposite of easy.

When the orb did come out, it landed in Blaze’s out-stretched hands with a soft plop. I stared at for a long while, before nudging Blaze gently with my snout.

‘If you have an idea, then share it,’ I told him.

“It can wait for another time,” Blaze replied quickly, “Maybe once I have regained some more of my memories.”

‘Enough talk; I want to get this over and done with,’ Ginny interrupted.

The might she-dragon curved her neck, so that her open snout was directly over Anna’s out-stretched hands. Ginny’s Heart Stone came out with a slightly louder pop, but other than that, everything was quiet.

‘It is done,’ Ginny said, ‘Look after our Heart Stones; if you don’t, you know what will happen.’

*-*-*-*

I didn’t really see the point in what I was doing. Elyse and I had decided to leave as soon as training of the first batch of DS troops had been finished, but instead Elyse was being held back so that Blaze could set her up with a normal life.

‘How normal can life be for her?’ I wondered, ‘She is an alien race that has been extinct for eons.’

I was currently lounging in front of a communications console, trying to avoid doing work that had been forced onto me. When Anna had discovered that I was staying until Elyse was released, she had suggested I get given some sort of job to do.

“Stupid Elf just had to open her freaking mouth,” I muttered under my breath, “Now I am stuck here, monitoring incoming signals from Klanoat Fleets that are on the edge of ER space; just my freaking luck.”

As if my day couldn’t get any worse, a Klanoat Elite walked in to the Pluto Coms Centre; the damn alien insect staring right at me as if it had the power to chew me out.

I glared back, the Klanoat getting more agitated the longer I held its gaze. Eventually it shrugged, and started towards one of the consoles on the other side of the room from me.