The Warriors: The Dragon Within by The Warriors (essential reading TXT) 📖

Prologue

“He’s late.”
“He said he’s on his way, Fire Mistress.”
“Well, let’s hope he gets here in due course, then. Else I shall not be pleased.”
Alice paused. “The Warriors. I have doubts about his chances.”
“Not to worry. He shall get the job done. In the mean time, I sense something else in store for them.” The Fire mistress let out a high-pitched string of laughter. “It seems the dragon awakes!”


Part 1: Munchies!

Daniel had worked hard to re-untidy his house, thanks to Nicki’s antics. Luckily, the cigarette tray was refilling with cigarette butts and a pile a bacon sandwiches was, once again, set on a plate on the kitchen counter. The lounge was crammed with awful paintings again, and there was the distinct smell of cannabis in the air.
Things were, indeed back to normal.
He went to the TV, about to turn it on, when he noticed Nicki sprawled on the sofa. She had a spliff in her hand and was staring at the ceiling, confused.
“Dude...” she mumbled. “Is it me, or are the walls bleeding?”
Daniel paused. “Erm...”
Nicki looked at him. “Hey, I’m trippin’ balls here...”
“Sure thing, Nicki. Sure thing.”
Daniel turned on the TV and sat in the arm chair.
“Dude, why you not, like, experimentin’ and doing nerdy shit...”
Daniel turned to Nicki, his eyes totally black!
Nicki was on her feet in...around 5 minutes. She stared in horror at Daniel.
“Dude, you’re a demon!”
Daniel was ready to pounce, but then disappeared completely! She looked around, astounded. Since when did Daniel vanish! He was no invisible man!
She went to the window. He wasn’t outside.
“Nicki? What are you doing?” asked Daniel.
Nicki turned, but nobody was there!
“Daniel?”
“I’m here!”
She turned again, but the room remained empty!
“Nicki? Are you ok?” Nicki felt something grab her arm.
“Daniel, you’re totally invisible, dude!” she laughed.
“Nicki, you need to come down!”
The walls suddenly went back to bleeding, and Daniel came into view in front of her. “Sofa. Now.”
Nicki sprawled out again on the sofa, nestling into the cushions. And then, all of a sudden, the most painful and greatest hunger came over her! Daniel didn’t notice when she got up and went to the fridge. He was too involved in his new creation. The Cube Mrk. 4. This time, it would work. This time, it would live!
Nicki sat, cross legged in front of the fridge, giving into a serious case of the munchies.


Georgia looked at the pages on her desk. How could her homework pile up like this? It’s like she was living a double life! Oh...wait...
She gathered the papers up and started to sort through them, in order of priority. She slowly started to come to the daunting conclusion that tonight, she’d sleep in her office. How could so many people have mental disorders? And her power was supposed to make this easy! All her power had brought her was the responsibility of saving the world. And 5 people whom she now called her friends. She supposed that was a plus.
The sun had soon set and Georgia was still filling out forms and reports and other stuff that other people should be doing. As night drew, Georgia began to slow down her work pace.
Coffee!
Georgia wandered through the empty building, listening to the slow hum of traffic outside, in search of the coffee machine. It unnerved her slightly that the building was dark, but only because of past events.
Upon her victory of finding the coffee machine, Georgia was about to fill her cup, when she heard something shift behind her. It was only small, like the air moving, but it was enough to make her turn and search for signs of life around her.
She reached out with her mind, searching for thoughts, just stray thoughts that might give away someone’s position.
When there was nothing but the empty room, she turned back to the coffee machine, just as the door burst open and someone came crashing in, yelling her name!
“GEORGIA!”
Georgia yelled and jumped back, hitting whatever it was full min the face with her fist.
“Ow! Fuck! Dude, not cool!”
Georgia paused. “Nicki?”
“What!” Nicki stood up, her hand on her nose. “Thanks for the breaking of my nose. We only came to take you home!”
“Jesus! Sorry. I’m a little on edge.”
“A little?” came the voice of Verity. “You totally took her out!” she laughed a little.
Nicki growled at verity, one that seemed strangely more hostile than usual and a little more dragon than usual, but then chirped, “Care to fix my nose then go see the others at the pub?”
Georgia held out her hand at Nicki and flexed her fingers. There was a loud crack and Nicki yelped in pain, as her nose clicked back to unbroken status.
“Tar dude.”
“Well guys, I would go to the pub, but my work load is huge!” Georgia was about to explain further, but on the other side of the room, the wall suddenly caved in, rubble flying everywhere as a Beatle came crashing through the wall!
“Shit!” yelled Nicki. The three of them stood there, ready to fight, yet taken totally off-guard! Verity stepped back a little and Georgia noticed she had no bow or arrows this time.
The Beatle was slightly disorientated as it crashed into tables and chairs, but once it laid eyes on The Warriors, it stood, ready to kill.
Georgia raised her hands and tables, chairs and furniture floated, lost from gravity, and then flung themselves at the beast, bouncing off it’s armour! It crouched and then leapt into midair. Georgia had her hands up in an instant and caught it mid air, keeping it from moving! The more it struggled to break free, the more Georgia had to concentrate!
“Go! Now!” she yelled.
Nicki took a deep breath and then torched it, breathing red hot flames into it’s face, melting it’s eyes! As it screamed, Nicki ran out of breath and the Beatle went crashing to the floor. The Beatle was still in Georgia’s grip, but wasn’t resisting as much, so Georgia lessoned her concentration. The Beatle pined at it’s eyes, blue blood oozing from it’s sockets.
“Hey! That’s OUR monster!” yelled female voice from behind it.
Nicki, Verity and Georgia frowned and looked to where the voice was coming from. Where the wall had caved in, on a ledge behind the rubble stood three people.
The first person was small, wearing green skinnies, a blue T-shirt and an orange hoodie. Her hair was twice the size of her head and had in it every colour but brown! Her huge bush of rainbow hair stood out in the dark shadows, yet concealed behind the colour was, strapped to her back, a sniper rifle! Next to her was stood the tallest, skinniest man Georgia had ever seen. He was entirely dressed in grey and had hair that covered the top half of his face completely. In direct contrast to the pair of them was the guy stood on the other side of the girl. He was tall, huge even; dressed in an armoured suit that made him look a bit like a robot! The mask covering his face reflected the Beatle and The Warriors and he held a gun bigger than the girl stood next to him!
“Who are you?” asked Georgia.
“Hey, look! It’s Master Chief!” laughed Nicki.
“Silence! We are the Renegades! We are here to kill these abominations and rid the world of evil!” the girl yelled, punching her fist in the air.
“Evil!” repeated the skinny guy on her left.
“The Renegades?” Verity spat. “What kind of name is that?”
“Huh? Who are you supposed to be?” she asked.
“We’re The Warriors. And these guys are kinda our responsibility.” replied Georgia.
“Ha! You think you can handle them? All you have, by the looks of it is telekinesis and two hooligans!” she laughed.
“Hooligans!” repeated the skinny guy again.
“We have more than that, friend.” She murmured. It’s not just telekinesis in my power! Georgia rammed the thought right into the girl’s mind!
The girl but laughed. So, another psychic, eh? You’re not the only one, friend!
“So you’re a psychic?” Georgia raised an eyebrow.
“I may be? Or I may not...” the girl suddenly disappeared. I may just be a figment of your imagination! Her laughter filled Georgia’s head. “So, you’re invisible as well?”
“Correct!” came the girl’s voice from behind. “The name’s Colver. Don’t forget it!”
Georgia turned to see her cocking the rifle and pointing it straight at Nicki and, before Georgia could react, she’d fired a bullet right into Nicki!
“Nicki!” she yelled, but was stopped in confusion as Nicki only got jerked forwards by the force!
Nicki turned and said, “Dude! Why has everyone got it in for me today?”
Georgia thought to herself, that Nicki wasn’t wearing her armour...
“So it seems you’re not the only one with powers.” murmured Colver.
“Dovashiin. Half dragon.” Nicki smiled and held out her hand and when Colver made no move to shake it, she dropped it.
“Do we really have to explain ourselves to these amateurs?” Verity spat.
“No way you is half dragon, dude.” Colver raised her eyebrows at Nicki. Nicki just smiled, secretively.
“Who are they?” asked Georgia, eyeing the big guy’s gun.
“He’s Webster.” She pointed to the skinny guy. “And that’s JKL.”
“What does that stand for?” asked Nicki.
“Just JKL. Now, can you give us back our monster so we can carry out or mission before we were so interrupted?”
“Georgia, let’s get out of here.” Verity mumbled.
“Ready Nicki?” asked Georgia. Nicki winked and Georgia released her grip on the Beatle. The Beatle writhed and got to it’s feet, ready to kill. Nicki stepped forwards and burst into her dragon form, towering above the Beatle. Georgia heard Colver gasp and saw no change upon what she could see of Webster’s face, as Nicki’s claws came down on the Beatle’s face with a roar that was strangely more dragon and animal than usual. Georgia thought to herself briefly whether this was a good idea, but then Nicki clamped her jaws around the Beatle’s neck, pinning it down and waiting for it to die.
“Jesus! What the fuck is that?” gasped Colver, raising her rifle.
“Shoot my friend and you die.” Verity snarled at Colver.
Nicki stood on top of the Beatle’s body, roaring her victory, but not changing back. As she turned, she growled down at them, and Georgia immediately knew something was wrong. Her eyes were no longer the pale yellow, but a deep, dangerous red. She bore her teeth and flung herself to where the wall had caved in, Webster and JKL leaping out of the way as Nicki disappeared into the sky with an almighty roar.
“Well shit.” mumbled Georgia.
“You stole out kill!” yelled Colver. “We will meet again, and when we do, you will pay, Warriors!” And with that, Colver leapt to the ledge and disappeared into the shadows, her rainbow colours fading to black along with her two comrades.
“What was that?” gasped Verity.
“I think Nicki may have a dragon problem. Let’s go.”


Part 2: Strike one.

Daniel went through the front door followed by Holly, Verity, Georgia and Blur, not to find Nicki, but an empty fridge.
“What happened there?” asked Blur, looking at the empty contents.
“I thought she needed munchies, not a feast...” mumbled