Carmody and the Electric Dragon

Eric was kneeling in the tunnel, his headlamp shining over the floor, Lilly standing beside him. In the light they could see bits of broken plastic casing, oily smears and a single broken headlamp. It was the one that had been given to Achmed to wear, Eric could tell by the serial number on its side.

“They definitely came this way” Lilly said, “So where did they go?”

“I don’t know” admitted Eric “It is hard to tell from the footprints that remain. The other thing I don’t understand are these marks” He shone his lamp on the walls and floor, showing fresh gouges carved into the concrete. “It’s like they were made by some kind of industrial tools”

“Could there be something down here, something that attacked them?” wondered Lilly.

Eric had a thoughtful look on his face.

“There have been some strange stories from the adjacent Districts” he said in his slow and deliberate manner. Sometimes it drove the others crazy how long it took him to say something.

“Yes? And...?” prompted Lilly impatiently.

“Hmm? Oh, reports of maintenance robots and delivery drones going missing. Even some construction and repair machines failing to report back after being despatched to jobs under the city”

“The Guard did not investigate the reports?” Lilly asked incredulously.

“Not yet” Eric said with a hint of embarrassment. “With all the other things happening right now it was probably given a low priority. The likely answer is they were damaged and unable to return, or maybe stolen by a net diver for some smuggling or robot fighting games”

“Does that kind of stuff happen in this city?”

“Yes, a lot more than most citizens would realise” Eric answered honestly. “It is one of the reasons I wanted us to become more familiar with the world that lies underneath Pan City”

“I see” Lilly replied. “Okay, so maybe our friends ran afoul of some smugglers or other criminal types. What do we do now to find them?”

“If they got away, they should head to the surface. Achmed is with them, so any locked gates or hatches should not stop them getting out. I’ll message the Guards at the school Post to watch for them”

“What if they didn’t get away?” Lilly asked suddenly. Eric met her eyes in the tunnel and drew his slim automatic pistol from a concealed holster under his coveralls.

“Then we deal with that” he said grimly.

=====

Nata was the one to wake up feeling confused this time. She was lying on the lap of the young girl Carmody, her face being wiped by a cool handkerchief. When she opened her eyes, the girl gave a cry of relief.

“Nata, I am so glad you came to!” Carmody said. “I could not carry you any further so I was just hoping you would wake up”

“Where are we?” Nata asked and went to sit up. Searing pain surged into her consciousness as she put weight on her burned right arm. She cried out involuntarily in agony and fell back against Carmody’s lap.

“I’m sorry, Nata, I didn’t have anything to treat your arm” the young girl wailed. “I bandaged it as best I could, but I didn’t want to leave you here to find help”

The Sister raised her arm and noted how the burns had been covered by what looked like torn strips of a white undershirt.

“Did you do this all by yourself?” Nata asked in a subdued voice. “It’s a pretty good job”

“My mum made sure I took first aid courses for when I looked after my little brother” she answered.

Both of them startled at a loud crash in the far distance, echoing down the service tunnels. Nata looked around, noticing they were in a small chamber lit by movement activated lights. A shaft led upwards next to where they were lying, rungs rising out of sight above them.

“I tried but I could not carry you up by myself” Carmody confessed with embarrassment. “And I could not call for help as my phone won’t get a signal down here”

“You carried me away from the fight?” Nata wondered. Carmody nodded shyly and then as a sudden thought, leaned to one side and handed the older girl her short sword. It was no longer glowing, so Nata knew it had been some time since the battle with the Gremlins.

“I made sure I brought your sword” Carmody said with a hint of pride. “I found my bat too, it had landed in one of the furthest corners”

Nata examined the young girl with respect. She had called herself a Dragon Slayer, and now she thought about it there had been a request made to the Order about such things.

“Carmody, did you really fight a Dragon?”

“Ah yeah, kind of” she muttered coyly. “I had a lot of help. I also fought some Zombie things underneath my school”

The Sister pursed her lips in silent contemplation. The girl was being completely honest as best as Nata could tell. She needed to know more about this Carmody Brentwood and what she had been fighting in the past.

Ignoring the pain, Nata pushed herself to her feet. Carmody stood up too, offering assistance to the wounded young woman which was gratefully accepted.

“If I can get back to my apartment, I have some healing poultices and medical equipment to treat my injuries” she announced. “I can also help you with your sprained leg”

“You want me to help you get home?” asked Carmody.

Another loud crash sounded somewhere, closer this time it seemed.

“I think it is time we both got out of here” Nata said. She sheathed her sword and went to the ladder. Carmody joined her and both of them looked up the long shaft with no small amount of worry.

“This is going to hurt” Carmody observed.

Nata turned to her and gave a grim smile.

“It will hurt even more if we stay down here”

=====

“Agent Eric, this is Unit F-Zero-Three at the Guard Post” Fiona signalled to the young agent via the quantum network. “Agents Sarah and Achmed have just arrived at my location. They appear to be unharmed but have reported Agent Carmody is still missing”

“Okay, thanks for letting me know” Eric signalled back. “Did they say what happened?”

There was a pause as the Jill conversed with Sarah and Achmed.

“They were attacked by rogue maintenance robots in the tunnels. In the first engagement, they ran away and got separated from Agent Carmody”

“What do you mean by ‘the first engagement’?” Eric sent to Fiona. There was another pause as the female clone obtained more details.

“It appears they were later attacked by a large swarm of drones and robots, all acting quite violently. Agent Achmed was able to destroy them with an EMP burst”

Eric relayed this to Lilly, who had been unable to hear any of the conversation since it was all going on inside the boy’s head.

“So, we should continue looking for Carmody then?” Lilly wondered aloud. “If there are dangerous robots down here, will we be able to rescue her?”

“I have my pistol and you are a Grade Two Teleporter” Eric stated with confidence.

“I am also one of the smartest people in Year Seven” Lilly added. “Has anyone tried to call Carmody on her phone?”

Eric looked embarrassed now, then told Lilly he was relaying her suggestion to Sarah and Achmed via the Jill clone.

“Hmm” he said to Lilly. “It appears Sarah and Achmed managed to fry their phones when he used the EMP on the robots. However, Carmody was not with them by that time so her phone should still be working”

Lilly sighed, realising this conversation was going to take far longer than it really should have.

“Okay Eric, this is what you need to ask the Guard clone to do...”

=====

Carmody was seated beside Nata in an auto-cab, heading across the city to the Sister’s apartment in District Eight. She had tried calling her friends but none of them were answering their phones.

Then her phone rang and the number display simply identified the caller as “Guard Network”. She answered it immediately.

“Um, hello? This is Carmody Brentwood”

“Miss Brentwood, this is Unit F-Zero-Three from the Guard Post at the school”

“Oh, Hi Fiona” Carmody said in sudden recognition. “Why are you calling me? Has something happened to the others?”

=====

10th District Junior High School, Pan City

Eric and Lilly were the last to arrive at the special facility built on the roof of the high school. They had been collected from the tunnel exit by Guard Units F-Thirteen and Fourteen, driving in a big four wheeled van used by the Police Auxiliary.

Once they got to the facility, Eric addressed the other members of the AURA Project team based at the school. He looked at the expectant faces of Lilly, Achmed and Sarah then frowned.

“Where is Stanley?” he asked Sarah, fixing her with his blue eyes. ”He should be here as well”

Sarah sighed and pointed to one end of the room.

“He’s right there” she said wearily. “We go through this every time” she added in a mutter to herself.

“Hello!” announced Stanley, but since it was only Sarah that could hear him this was also missed by the rest of the team.

“Stanley says hello” Sarah repeated for the benefit of her friends. After all the walking, running and climbing they had done tonight, she was way too tired to do much else and slumped in her chair.

Looking around at the rest of the team, it was the same for everyone. Even the super fit Eric was struggling to keep his usually perfect posture while he stood at the head of the table.

“It has been a really long day for all of us” piped up Lilly, sitting rather closer than necessary to Achmed. “Since Carmody is safe for now, how about we talk about what happened after we have a good night’s sleep?”

Eric regarded his friends and realised that Lilly was right. If Carmody had still been lost in the tunnels it would be a different story, but for now they all needed to rest.

“Okay everyone. Lilly is correct. Head to your rooms and we’ll talk in the morning”

The friends let out a small chorus of tired agreement and staggered off to the two bunk rooms that had been built alongside Stanley’s quarters. Each bunk room, one for the boys and the other for the girls, had four beds and a small bathroom attached. They were cosy and comfortable, the only downside being when one of the team snored really loudly.

They had only used the rooms a couple of times since they had been built, for those times they had an overnight training session like this one. Eric followed Achmed to their shared room, calling out a goodnight to Stanley as they turned off the lights.

“Goodnight, Eric” Stanley said, even though the boy could not hear him.

The dragon sat in his favourite corner, listening to the sounds coming from the rooms as his friends washed and changed for bed. Tomorrow was a school day so the students would be preparing for the day here in his quarters. He liked having them all here, although he missed not having Carmody with them tonight.

When you only have two friends in the whole world who can see and hear you, you treasure them highly. The dragon settled himself down and wondered what it was that they had found down in the tunnels.

With a grim certainty he felt that the Emissary must be involved somehow. It had been defeated once and its human servants captured, yet Stanley was worried that some fragment had escaped. Even a small piece of the Emissary could cause trouble and given time could grow into a full sized creature.

It did not belong in this world, but like Stanley it could survive and indeed grow bigger. Stanley looked at his larger body, grown a whole meter longer since he had arrived here. If the fragments of the Emissary were able to grow, they would not need an army of Dracoris Abyssal to come through a portal. They could become an army right here.

He had nearly fallen asleep despite his unhappy thoughts when he heard a familiar voice.

“Hey, Stanley, are you still awake?”

Stanley lifted his long neck and regarded his first and best friend, the girl child Sarah Evermore. She was dressed in one-sie pajamas that made her look like a yellow lion, her cloth tail clutched in one hand.

“Yes, Sarah, I am still awake. What is the matter?”

She shuffled her feet and stepped closer, swinging her tail idly in her hand.

“Can I sleep in here with you tonight?” she asked. Stanley had excellent vision even in dark rooms so he could see her hopeful face quite clearly.

“Is that appropriate?” he wondered aloud. “You and I are of opposite genders” he reminded her.

“Eeww!” she said. “That is not what I meant. I just like being next to you because you are really warm”

“Very well, Sarah, you may sleep beside me” Stanley agreed and shuffled over on his big floor mattress to give her space. His friend dashed off to the girl’s room and returned with her pillow and a blanket.

As his friend snuggled up close to his warm side, he lowered his head and started to drift off to sleep once more. It felt very comforting to have a friend close by as he slept and he wondered if this was why Sarah had asked to sleep in here.

Then a loud gargling, snorting noise erupted from the girl’s bunk room.

“What on earth is that awful racket?” Stanley asked Sarah.

Sarah snuggled down deeper into her blanket, pulling it over her head.

“That’s Lilly” she replied. “She snores really bad. That’s why I wanted to sleep in here”