The Warriors: The Rune - The Warriors (summer beach reads .TXT) 📗

Part 1: Prologue

The Beatle stood in the cover of the trees opposite the run down laboratory. The over-sized shed stood in a small clearing, on the edge of some rich guy’s estate and could have easily passed for a forgotten shack. The complex was entirely deserted and the only security is owned was a small, barbed wire fence that could be easily defeated. The Beatle was not familiar with the habitants of Earth and their folly ways, but she assumed that this was one of the less attractive sights; in fact she wouldn’t have been surprised the same building could be found in the Warren’s of the Sky Realm.
She stepped out of the shadows, sure that she was alone and went inside the building, readying herself for trouble. She could feel the presence of the object she had been sent to acquire. It was close. Very close.
She made her way through the wooden rooms of the lab. The previous occupant had tried so very hard to rid the place of the research that had been done here, but she was certain the young scientist had not been very thorough.
The Beatle stepped into the next room when she heard something shift behind her; it sounded like the wind, like the air, but when she turned, there was no one there. Putting it down to paranoia, she carried on until she got the main room, now empty except for some rubble, old furniture covered in white cloths and foliage that had crept inside.
Once again, there was the sound of wind rushing past her and the Beatle whirled round to see nothing. She was not alone!
A black shadow rushed through a pool of dim light from the moon and then it was behind her. She turned, but as soon as she did, it was behind her again.
Whatever it was, it was fast. Ignoring the threat, The Beatle concentrated on finding the relic. She looked around the room, the shadow still moving, trying to distract her, when something hard hit her from the side, sending her to the ground.
Shaking the disorientation from her head, she looked around, both for the intruder and the relic. She spied the relic across the room on top of a table, the tiny rock imbedded in the shadows. She leapt to her feet, leaping towards the relic, but she was knocked back again.
“Who are you?” she shouted at the darkness, getting up again, readying the Beatle inside her. “Is it you, Goddess of lightening? Is it the telepath? Is it the assassin or the dragon?”
“Guess again, biatch!” she shadows snarled. The Beatle followed the voice, but when it spoke again, it was from the other side of the room behind her! “I don’t belong to that little posse.”
The Beatle turned to see a silhouette of a woman stood in front of the threshold of the door, the silver moon light illuminating the room behind her.
“Then who are you?” asked The Beatle, backing towards the relic while keeping her eyes on the intruder. The Beatle squinted in the darkness, trying to get a better look; she wore a long, leather coat, skin tight leggings and boots.
“Guess.” The assailant pulled something from her coat and pointed it at The Beatle. The Beatle put her hand down on the table behind her, missing the relic and as soon as she looked back up at her attacker, she was gone. She looked back down at the table and so was the relic.
“Shit.”


Part 2: The Plot Appears

“Once, in the First Year of the Sky Realm, there existed dragons. They populated the entire realm and humans lived in fear of them below the ground. Back in those times, only magic existed to help the human’s live stable lives; it was almost their life force. They relied on it to grow food and for water. They had lived in the presence of dragons all their lives and the dragons used to frequently attack colonies of humans and enslave them. The dragons thrived on the human’s fear. However, one day, a boy who practiced in destructive arts decided he wanted change. He went to the dragons and, using his tricks, he stole some of their blood. He used this blood to become a dragon. Using his new, found other half, he destroyed billions of dragons and banished the ones who were left, leaving himself the last dragon. He freed the human race made sure the dragons could never return to the Sky Realm, trapping them in a fiery hell. He gave the humans the power of the dragon’s magic, rendering them Gods. With this extraordinary power, they ruled the Sky Realm. No one knows where the dragons went; some believe the words of the human that they are now living out their punishment in fire, some say they all died, some say their blood lives on in other worlds. The boy grew into a mighty wizard and he was worshiped. The dragon in him died with him. That was the last dragon any of us saw.
Until now, I guess.”
Holly leaned back in her chair and Georgia, Daniel and Verity all closed their mouths and blinked for the first time in half an hour.
“So Nicki’s the last dragon. Thank god she was so clumsy and got stabbed with a needle!” Verity’s comment slid between the four of them.
“Hey, it wasn’t her fault. Anyway, that’s not a good thing, it’s given Lorna a reason to try and kill us.” replied Georgia, leaning back in her arm chair.
“Well, I still think it’s her fault for playing with needles, you know what she’s like with drugs.” Verity spat back.
“Oh god, let’s not start this again!” sighed Daniel, standing and leaving for the kitchen.
“She knew she was stealing from my stock! And now I have to pay the price because the Chinese aren’t happy with 1 gram of cocaine missing!” Verity stood.
“Just leave it, ok, she’ll make it up to you!” Georgia sighed, weary.
“Oh lizard girl will pay alright!”
“Speaking of, where it the last of the dragons?” Georgia glanced out of the window.
“Oh, didn’t you know, she’s got a job!” replied Daniel from the kitchen.
Verity, Georgia and Holly all turned to look at Daniel with shocked expressions.
“Is she ok?”
“Is she ill?”
“What have you done?”
Daniel winced from the salvo of questions and murmured, “Nothing! Even I don’t know where she’s got a proper job!”
He was just about to turn and open the fridge when the doorbell rang, it’s shrill cry freezing everyone in the house. After a moment of thick tension, Verity moved to where her bow was stood behind the front door with silent grace and slid an arrow from her quiver. Georgia stood in front of the door and Holly stood behind her. Daniel went to the door, shaking and put his head up to the peep hole.
The doorbell went again, making Daniel jump and open the door a crack. “Who is it?” he whimpered.
“Me, will you let me in, I’m not gonna hurt you guys!” came an angry voice from behind the door.
Daniel turned, relief clouding his face. Verity tensed slightly, not putting down her bow. Over the threshold came Blur Fury, her black leather jacket billowing out behind her.
“Hi guys, I have news.” She chirped, walking into the lounge and plonking a small, aluminium box down onto the table. Daniel closed the door and followed her, Georgia and Holly mirroring his actions. Verity remained in her position, still aiming an arrow at Fury’s head.
“You can put that away, I’m on your side!” Fury murmured, sitting in Georgia’s arm chair. Georgia raised an eyebrows and Verity stared, icily at Fury.
“I don’t trust you. You turn up when we’re sat in a pub randomly and now you show up again with no adequately explained reason.” She sneered from behind her mahogany bow.
“Well, each to their own. I’m just trying to help you guys as the Red-haired Maiden seems to have a great interest in you guys.”
“What about your company?” asked Georgia.
“Paracorp is there to help people like us, people who have unexplained super-human abilities. Our second priority is to keep our little community hidden from the normal humans to ensure that chaos does not break out.” Fury sat, smiling.
“So it’s like Harry Potter combined with X-Men? Since when was this a super-hero film?” spat verity.
Fury paused before steering the conversation in a different direction. “I came here because I’ve been following what you call The Beatle. I followed her and found out that she was after this.” She gestured to the box on the table. Georgia reached out and lifted the lid off the box. Inside was a small, metallic stone with lines engraved into it that looked remarkably like one of the dragon runes from Daniel’s research. Georgia gasped, lifting the small relic from the box and handing it to Daniel.
“But that’s...” murmured Daniel, taking the relic.
“Isn’t that the focus of your research?” asked Georgia.
“Was.” corrected Daniel. “This was locked away in my lab before it got exploded.”
“What is it?” asked Fury.
“It’s a dragon rune; I was using it to translate the dragon alphabet to English, but the stone is a completely new mineral. I tried to analyse it but it’s not of this earth and has continued to baffle me ever since.” He explained, handing it back to Georgia.
“So, The Beatle might know what this does or what it means.” added Fury.
“Are you sure we should be trusting her?” asked Verity from the corner.
“Too late for that. Anyways, I have to keep following The Beatle. You can keep that. I’ll be back with any other news I acquire on my travels.” Fury stood and made for the door, followed only by Verity’s arrow. “You keep that, I’m sure it’s safer with you.” And with that, Fury was gone and speeding away, leaving only a cold breeze.
Verity put down her bow.
“Well, that was random and rather informative.” murmured Daniel as Georgia carefully placed the rune back into the box.
“How was that informative? She just came out of nowhere and gave us a rock, expecting us to figure it out!” shouted Verity. “We have nothing to do with her!”
“She gave us what the Red-haired Maiden was looking for. If she has a plan for world domination, then this is obviously it. We’re one step ahead now.” reasoned Georgia.
Verity went quiet.
Behind them, the front door burst open to reveal a crest-fallen Nicki storming in and throwing herself down onto the sofa.


Part 3: The Plot Thinnens.

Fury peered round the corner and watched as The Beatle went into one of the 12 warehouses. Armed guards waited outside the doors, so she turned and sped up a fire-escape and leapt up onto the roof of the building opposite. Fury took a running jump towards the warehouse roof and landed with a soft thump on the tin roof. She stooped slightly to see if the guards had noticed and, satisfied that they hadn’t, she went to one of the translucent roof windows and peered down.
The warehouse was filled with wooden crates stacked high to the ceiling with only a small floor space in the centre. Narrow alley ways were running through the wooden crates and Fury noticed one that led to a small back door.
“Are