Dracozine - part 9

I was running through a dark forest. The trees were close together, every now and then I would trip on a uncovered root on the ground. I was being hunted, I didn't know what was chasing, but I was scared of being caught. My sides burned with exertion as I ran, my breath was ragged in my chest.

I stumbled onto a clearing, overgrown with tall grass and weeds. I had to stop, I was too tired to continue running. I stood there for a while, heaving for air, trying to catch my breath, when I heard a noise in the bushes behind me. I turned around, eyes darting in all directions, trying to find the source of the sound. As I took a cautious step forward, I felt heavy weight bear itself on my shoulder, and a cold, raspy voice, unknown and frightening, whisper in my ear "I am awake."

I woke up with a start. That had been one of the most vivid dreams I ever had. I still felt that weight on my shoulder; I rubbed it with my scaly hand as it faded away. What had I been running from? Why had I been so scared? I got out of the bed and looked out of the window. It appeared to be late morning, the sun was high in the sky over the complex, and I could see the other dragons and people sitting at the tables outside the canteen.

As I got dressed, I remembered what had happened last night, after the party. Later on, I told myself as I put on a red singlet from the cupboard, I would go to the admin building, see how Karen was doing. I pulled on the modified pants I had made yesterday, and left my room.

BlueScale was at the table as I came into the kitchen, eating an apple. He looked up at me as I approached, looking serious. "Sky, could you come to my room with me for a sec?"
"err... OK" I said, curious, and followed him to his room.

As we went past Grym's room BlueScale stopped and put his finger to his lips as he listened through the door. I could hear bizarre sounds coming from the room, and it sounded as if Grym was trying to play the guitar. All we could hear was twang, "damn", twang, "damn it," twang, SNAP! "f$@&!". BlueScale and I laughed silently as we entered his room next door.

I saw that his room was really untidy. His floor was covered in used clothes and scraps of paper, and his desk was loaded with camera pieces and a macBook air. He sat down on his bed and chomped down on his apple. "So," he said after swallowing, "I got a problem, and I need your help."

"OK, shoot." I replied.

"I've been thinking all day and all night yesterday about my choice." He said as he pulled out his needle and studied it closely.

"There's no need to rush it, you have all the time you want to make your choice, Blue."

"I know that, but I also know that the longer I take to make this choice, the harder it's gonna be to make, Sky." He looked down at the floor, "All this time, my obsession with dragons has been a mystery to me. I don't even know why I started liking dragons so much, but it's become a major part of my life. Being a dragon descendant, it just – makes – sense."

He chomped down on his apple and swallowed slowly, "The choice to be a dragon has been a hard one to make for me.  It's taken me this long to come to a decision. But now I know that even though I might regret becoming a dragon, I am going to regret it even more if I don't." he looked up, "I've made my choice, Sky, I want to be a dragon."

"If you're sure that it's what you want" I told him, "then go ahead and take the Dracozine."  

"And that's the problem." He shuddered a little. "I'm afraid of needles."

"You're kidding, right?" I said, raising an eyeridge.

"I wish I was," he said with a sigh, "I got my vaccinations in school once, and broke the needle in my arm, there was blood everywhere, and I have never taken another injection since."  BlueScale took one last bite out of his apple, and threw the core onto the floor "So will you help me, buddy? If I do this myself, I know I'm gonna screw it up."

"Yeah, OK Blue." I replied , "I'll do it."

"Thanks." He rolled his sleeve up his arm and exposed his bare forearm. "I was going to ask Grym, but he probably would just call me a wuss."

"I don't think so." I said as I took the needle from his other hand and held it as best as I could with my claws. "He's not a bad guy. At least he seems alright if you're on his good side." Satisfied I could hold and use it properly, I moved the needle close to his bare forearm, ready to inject. "You ready for this?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure..."

"Yes."

"It's gonna hurt..."

"I know."

"Last chance..."

He turned his head away and closed his eyes, "Just do it already, Sky."

"OK then." As quick as I could, I inserted the needle into his arm. He winced a bit, and I went ahead, pushed down the plunger and pulled out the syringe.

"Done." I told him.

He looked back and blinked. "That didn't hurt."

"No." I said as I got up and went to the door, "but it will."

"Sky, don't leave." He called out, "I don't want to be alone when this change starts."

I sighed, "OK, I'll stay." I turned around and sat at the chair next to his desk. "It will take a minute to kick in; you'll know when it does."

So we waited around for a minute, looking around. I checked out the stuff on the desk, and saw that his Mac had a custom skin on the back, of a tribal print. I turned to BlueScale to comment, and saw he was looking at his arm, which was starting to change colour.

"Feels kinda wa-" was all he was able to get out before he jerked back and screamed in pain. He sprawled out on the bed, convulsing as the skin on his arm and face changed to an electric blue and hardened into scales. He cowered on the bed as the ends of his fingers turned into dark grey claws, and curved grey horns grew out from his hair.

A bulge appeared at the back of his pants, and burst as a tail snaked out and whipped the air behind him. He screamed again as he started to grow in size, and another bulge appeared on his back. His face grew out into a muzzle, which opened to reveal new sharp teeth growing from the gums.  His eyes were screwed shut as he kept changing. I think at that point, as the pain was increasing for him,  he was trying to blank it out.

Then in one huge burst, he lurched his back and roared as his shirt tore off to reveal pale blue scales on his chest and massive blue wings springing out from his back. A few more subtle changes were all I could make out as he sat there, breathing  heavily on the bed, his feet growing longer and digigrade, his head becoming more defined and angular, the wings growing even larger, before the transformation stopped, and BlueScale was a dragon. He slumped and fell back on the bed. I got up and checked to make sure he was OK.

"I did it." He mumbled. His eyes opened to reveal eyes the colour of amber, he looked at me, "BlueScale has blue scales."  He closed them as he passed out. I made sure he was comfortable and left him to rest.




I grabbed a plate and piled on some toast and bacon for breakfast. As I left the canteen, I saw Rosethorn, Grym and Jarek at a table. Grym saw me and waved me over. I went and sat down.

"How are you, buddy?" Jarek asked, "You left the party pretty early last night."

"I know," I replied, "Part of me wishes I hadn't."

"You look a little down, Skyder." Grym said, "Is something up?"

I told them about Karen, how I had found her last night, and what had happened to her.

"... Penelope said the people who did it to her were going into custody." I finished, "But that's not going to fix what happened. I feel so sorry for her, she's stuck that way, being what she is scared of the most. I can't imagine what she's going to do."

Jarek and Rosethorn were shocked. Grym however, was furious, "If I ever got my handsss on those people, I would tear them limb from limb! Who would do that to sssomeone elssse...."

He trailed off mid sentence as he looked at something behind me. I turned to see what he was looking at, and saw Achilleos leaving the canteen and walking to a table with his breakfast and a newspaper. He sat down, opened the paper, and read it while eating with one hand. Grym kept on staring, watching him as he ate.

"What's the matter, Grym?" I asked.

"Nothing... It's nothing. I'm not sssure..." He looked at Achilleos for a while, then down at the hand he was holding the fork with.

Rosethorn broke the awkward silence, "Jarek was telling us earlier about that Burke guy from the party last night."

"That big green guy that has the problem with me?" I asked.

"The same." Jarek answered, "A few mates of mine used to know him, he was on this chatroom a long while ago, that used to do roleplays. I never did any with him myself, but there were others who had. They would always complain that he had this god complex he would bring into the RP, take over and try and make everyone else worship him. There was a rumour he got banned from the chatroom server because he tried to make his own religion, declaring himself a deity, "Dragon of the Earth" or something like that."

"So he's a dragon god?"  I groaned, "Perfect, and I've gone and pi**ed him off."

"Don't worry," Jarek said, "Guys like him are all talk. He just needs an attitude check."

At that point, Penelope approached our table, "Hey everyone, just came to let Grym here know the lab guys need him for a bit."

Grym hissed with distaste as he got out of his seat, "I'll sssee you all later." He left with Penelope.

Rosethorn turned to me, "So, where's BlueScale?"

"He's in his room." I told them, "Just taken his Dracozine."

"Really?" she said incredulously, "I didn't think he would."

"Neither did I, to tell you the truth." I replied honestly, "But he's done it."

Rosethorn picked at the bacon at her plate with a fork, with a worried expression on her face before she asked, "Were you there when he changed?"

"He asked me to stick around when he did." I replied.

"Was he in much pain?" She looked up, her eyes shadowed with concern. "Is he going to be alright?"

"Rosethorn, he's going to be OK." I reassured her, "I checked him out when he went out afterward, he's unconscious now, but he'll wake up later on."

"I'm going up there, to make sure." She clattered her fork on her plate, got up and walked back over to building B, leaving me and Jackson alone at the table.

"err... when BlueScale changed..." Jarek asked curiously, "What colour were his scales?"

"Blue." I said.

"That's good to know." He replied with a smirk. "Could you imagine the irony if they weren't?"

Me and Jackson looked at each other for a moment, and burst out laughing.

I saw a flash of white out of the corner of my eye, and turned to see that Achilleos was walking back to the admin building. I stopped laughing as I got out of my seat, leaving my plate at the table.

"Where are you going?" Jarek asked.

"Gonna go find Achilleos," I answered, "We need to talk."

I found Achilleos at the front of the admin building talking to two of the scientists from the research team. They saw me as I approached, and the scientists walked away, anticipating a heated discussion. Achilleos looked down at the clipboard he was holding and made a note before looking back up at me. "Is there something wrong, Skyder?"

"There is, Achilleos." I said, a stern tone to my voice, "You need to explain how what happened to Karen was allowed to happen."

"What happened to Karen was horrible." Achilleos answered with a sigh, "The people responsible, Grace and the others, have been apprehended and had their Dracozine taken off them as punishment. They will most likely face assault charges after the media release, and probably receive prison time."

"Maybe you should go there with them." I said with a snort, "You're just as responsible."

"How so?" Achilleos asked.

"Karen should not have been here in the first place." I told him, "She was afraid of dragons, you should have known that before you admitted her into this test group. This should not have been allowed to happen in the first place."

"Look, I used the only selection process I had available to make my list. There were bound to be some mistakes."

"And what was your selection process?"

"All the dragon descendants here in the complex have deviantArt accounts. I used those accounts, and gauged their quality of work to decide who to put on the list."

"That was your selection process? That's not much better than a random guess!"

"Flawed, yes, but it was all I could do." He took a step forward, "You should bear in mind just how secretive people can be about what dragons mean to them. Take you, for example. You didn't arrive on the internet scene until very recently, but the time you took to take your Dracozine indicates being a dragon was something you have been waiting a long time for. So, why did you keep it so quiet for so long?"

"I had my reasons." I said uncomfortably.

"Well, secrecy like that left me with very little to go on. With Karen, she never made journal entries, or comments, nothing other than the very beautiful, detailed pictures of dragons she would post. I assumed she was quiet, like you were, and put her on the list. Karen being here was a bad call, Skyder, I can admit my guilt in her being here at the complex, but I was not the one who forced the syringe in her arm."

I shook my head, "Your bad call has ruined her life, I hope you know that."

"We are doing all we can for her, we'll help her cope." He checked his watch, "I have to go, I need to arrange another flying session for tonight with the DRC."

He walked away, leaving me staring at the brick wall of the admin building nearby. This whole situation with Karen was messed up. How could it have been allowed to happen? That Achilleos had made a 'bad call' and gotten her here was hard enough to believe, but that her friends would turn on her and force her to change, was too brutal to imagine. With a sigh, I turned and walked back to the apartment.



"BlueScale's awake." Rosethorn told me as I entered the apartment, "Said he wanted to talk to you."

I walked past her and went to see BlueScale on the couch in the living room. He looked a lot better than I left him earlier this morning; he was sitting on the couch, with a white set of those weird clothes on, watching something on the TV. He looked up at me and grinned, revealing a wide mouth of razor sharp teeth.

"So, I'm a dragon now." He said.

"I see." I replied, "Wings and all."

"Thanks for helping me; I couldn't have done it without you."

"It's OK,"

"No, really." He got up and held out a clawed hand, "Thank You."

I shook his hand, "No problem." I said with a smile.




So we sat there for a while, BlueScale, Rosethorn and I on the couch, just talking BlueScale through the intricacies of his new body. We explained how he wouldn't need to shave, but he would have to wash his wings and tail when he was in the shower. I told him about how he could zoom in with his sight when he needed to, just to be ready when he did (to which he responded by zooming in on the TV, and nearly falling off the couch in surprise). We talked him through the basics of flight, he was glad when I mentioned a flight session was on tonight, he was itching to give his new wings a try.

Then suddenly, Grym burst through the front door, and I could tell something was wrong. He seemed on edge, his crimson eyes were moving around in a flurry in his sockets, he was breathing hard, his breath was coming out in low short hisses. He slammed the door and walked over to the kitchen table, sitting at a chair and holding his head in his hands.

"Are you OK, Grym?" I asked. "What happened at the lab?"

"It wasss a psssych evaluation." Grym answered, "It wasss more of a damn interrogation..."

"What did they do?"

"They won't let me ssssay. But they went deep." He looked up at us and saw BlueScale, but didn't recognise him, "Who isss he?"

"It's me Grym." BlueScale said as he waved, "Just got up."

Grym laughed bitterly under his breath, "Blue, you have no idea what you jussst sssigned up for."

BlueScale didn't respond, he only got up and walked to his room, slamming his door as he did.

"Grym! He's only just turned!" Rosethorn shouted angrily, "You don't need to scare him like that!"

"Trussst me." Grym replied, "You should all be ssscared."