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As the sun began to set on Megapolis, lights around the city flared up, as was the usual routine in this mega city. But one place in particular shone their lights brighter than the rest of the city's. The Anti-gravity Arcade! A place of fun and enjoyment, and a second home to its two most visited customers. The Monkie Kid MK and the White Horse Dragon Mei! After finishing a long day of playing games in the arcade and bumping to its boisterous beats, our heroes head home to get a good night's rest, walking through the sparsely populated city streets.
"Ha! And what did Tang say after that?" asked Mei.
"I dunno, somethin' about Monkey King accidentally bumping into him while he was walking up one of those lift-stair thingies" said Mk, colliding his fists with each other to imitate it, "I think he helped him up or something like that"
"Really? There is no way they believed that" chuckling as she replied.
"Yeah, they didn't! Sandy asked Tang how he and the King weren't tumbling over each other down the stair lifts, and Tang just kinda' stopped working for a second!"
Mei put her hand on Mk's shoulder, saying, "Ha! That's so like him! Also, 'Stair lifts'? You mean escalators, right?"
"Uh, yeah" he replied, turning his head away in embarrassment.
Mei stopped walking and turned to MK, "You know, I don't think we give Sandy enough credit for what he does"
"What does he do again?" asked MK, with a puzzled look on his face.
"That's what I mean! Do you think we should talk to him later? You know, give him some good ol' friendly support?"
"I would, but it's gettin' kinda late and Pigsy's gonna' kill me if I don't wake up on time" he said as he pulled his staff from his back. Mei pulled her phone from her jackets pocket to check the time.
"Oof. Yeah, it is pretty late now, huh?" She said, tucking her hands into her pockets.
"Welp, guess we should speed up" said Mk, spinning his staff around and slamming it into the ground next to him, creating a small crater. "See ya later Mei!" Suddenly, the staff extended, launching MK above the multiple buildings surrounding them, as he shouted, "Here comes Monkie Kid!" while spinning his staff to keep himself in the air as he flew away, his voice getting quieter and quieter.
On the ground, Mk had caused a brief shockwave, knocking over the few pedestrians left on the street, Mei included, who had to regain her footing. As she watched MK pole-launch himself from building to building, she smiled to herself and thought I hope we don't have to pay for any of that stuff.
Pressing a button on her jacket, a jade aura surrounded Mei, equipping her green and white biker outfit. Briefly opening the visor on her helmet, she whistled, summoning her white dragon horse bike which came roaring down the street. After closing her visor, she hopped onto the bike as it rode by and took off westward through the city in a streak of green dragon-shaped light. The pedestrians left on the street were beyond confused.
Deep underneath Megapolis, the flaming foundry was alive with the sound of digging and forging. The Demon Bull King and Princess Iron Fan watch their bull clones hack away at the rock surrounding the increasingly ominous and ever-glowing power source. As the Bull King sits on his throne, small pieces of magma from the forge behind him jump onto his skin, hardly singing it, all the while he glares at the barely visible skeletal emblem decorated on the crown of the large black box.
Meanwhile, a disgruntled Red Son observes the production line of the bull clones, pacing back and forth across the railings sitting above the forge.
"Where is he?" he says, gritting his teeth. "You! The one with the lopsided horn!" he yells, pointing to a bull clone standing below him. The bull clone tilted its head and grunted. "Of course, I'm talking to you peasant! Where's General Ironclad?"
The bull clone gave a series of grunts while flailing its arms wildly, mimicking laser blasts and explosions with its hands. "Enough of that!" he shouted, holding his hand up to silence the bull clone, "I'll talk to her about it myself"
Red Son lit a flame in his hand and threw it at his feet. The flame then split apart and swirled around him like a tornado, closing in on him and condensing him into a small flame which flew off the railing and away from the forge, towards the bull king's throne. As the fire landed near the throne, Princess Iron Fan turned to find her son standing among the dissipating tornado of flames.
As flames began to erupt from his eyes, Red Son demanded answers. "Mother! What did you do with General Ironclad?!"
"That bull clone general? I sent him off to retrieve an item for me" said Princess Iron Fan dismissively, "He failed"
"And you didn't tell me?! These are my troops! What was so important that you would sacrifice my general to retrieve it?!"
"Watch your tone boy" grumbled DBK, continuing to watch the dig site. Red Son shut up at once.
"The item I sent him to retrieve was the dragon blade, which in the end, was the instrument of its destruction at the hands of the dragon family's daughter," she replied, scowling at the boy before continuing, "and might I remind you Red Son, that you do not own these bull clones. We do. And we will do with them what we please." Red Son gritted his teeth and clenched his fists as he tried to contain his anger. Sparks were flying off his head.
"Return to your measly scheme's child. This power calls to me, and I cannot be distracted when it is just within my grasp" said DBK, his gaze still focused on the black box. Red Son stormed off towards the forge, furious with his parent's disinterest with him. But he would show them that he was worth something. As he approached his garage, he pulled up his sleeve and tapped the buttons on the watch-like device wrapped around his wrist.
"The Dragon-horse girl has the dragon blade huh? Well, we will see whose schemes are measly when I acquire something the great Princess Iron Fan could not" he said, as a row of holographic panels appeared before him, showing him multiple live surveillance feeds of Megapolis' streets. "Now where could that noodle brain's friend be at this time of night?"
As he scanned the video feeds, another hologram popped up in front of him. An alert had been triggered by a group of bull clones on standby in the city. Red Son expanded the alert, showing him a video feed of Mei driving down the highway on her motorcycle. He opened up a video feed of the bull clones in one of their trucks, "She's heading west, is she? Intercept her and keep her busy long enough for me to get there" he said to the bull clones.
Red Son opened his garage and got into his Inferno Jet. He pressed a button on the device again, opening up a hatch above his garage. He started the jets engines, slowly rising out of the mountain that the forge was hidden under until he was outside. He shot off at lightning speed towards his bull clones location, leaving a trail of smoke behind the jet.
As Mei drove across the bridge leading to her house, she began humming to herself, although she could barely hear herself over the roar of her own motorcycle. Suddenly, the sound of an engine roaring over her motorcycle filled the air. She adjusted the bike's rear-view mirror to see a truck with bull-like features, full of bull clones rapidly approaching from behind.
"Uh oh. This can't be good." The Bull clones drove up next to her, with one of them trying to pull faces at Mei, despite the fixed position their heads were forged into.
Mei simply sped ahead of them, but the truck caught up again, the bull clones still taunting her. With a sigh, Mei pulled her sword off the holster on her bike and drove closer towards the truck, causing the bull clones to stop taunting and begin making loud bull sounds at her, their arms flailing wildly as they attempted to shoo her. Once she got close enough, she slashed both tires of the truck and holstered her sword onto her back. She resumed driving towards the bridge as the bull clones truck began to slow down, the tires on the right side of the truck now being deflated.
The bull clone in the drivers seat began to frantically looking around the interior of the vehicle for something to fight back with, before finding a large button on their dashboard. Pressing the button, a compartment opened up on the front of the truck and fired a large grappling hook, hitting Mei's bike. Realising her bike had been hit, Mei leaped off and onto the asphalt, the grips of her shoes slowing her down as she skidded on the road. She watched as her bike was slowly dragged by the grappling hook towards the now stationary truck.
"Come on! I just got that fixed! Don't wreck it now!" she yelled.
As she thought about how to stop them, she remembered what her sword could do. She unsheathed the Jade blade from her back and aimed it towards the truck, a small green light beginning to form at the tip.
The bull clone sitting next to the window tapped his fellow clones on the shoulders and pointed towards Mei. Once they realised what was about to happen, they began scrambling out of the truck and onto the road, busting down the doors on either side of the vehicle. With the beam on her sword fully charged, she fired, sending a powerful laser directly through the front window, blowing it up and reducing it to a flaming wreck. The clones which had escaped the truck were sent flying off both sides of the bridge by the blast and into the construction site below.
Mei walked over to her bike, saying to herself, "What's with these bull clones and showing up at the worst times." As she was picking up the bike, she looked up to see a crimson red jet flying above her, leaving a trail of fire behind it. "Okay, now that's definitely not good" she said, dropping her bike and clutching onto her sword.
The Jet landed on the far side of the construction site that stretched out for miles below the bridge. Mei sarcastically said to herself, "I wonder who that could be" before picking up her bike and driving it off the edge of the bridge, past the smoking wreckage of the truck and into the construction site.
Driving around the empty demolition site reminded Mei of how much damage occurred when they first fought the Demon Bull Family. Although right now, her main focus was finding where that jet could have landed and asking a few questions to its pilot. As she neared the jets landing site, Mei began to slow down her motorcycle.
That was when a streak of fire collided with her, sending her tumbling off of the bike and into the dirt, while her bike was left to crash into a building.
Mei turned over to find Red Son standing above her. "Red Son! Hah! I knew it!" she said pointing upwards at him. Red Son got a confused look on his face before grabbing her by the neck and lifting her upwards, tightening his grip. "Heh. Guess you're still mad about the whole 'destroying your car' thing during the great wall race huh?" she said as she gasped for air, while still smiling. The demon boy's grip was surprisingly strong, as no matter what she did, she couldn't move his hand away from her neck.
"Actually, I'm not here about that stupid race. I'm here for that" he said, looking at the dragon sword that was lying on the ground only a few feet away from them.
"Then why don't you take it? It's right there y'know?"
"Well, it seems I have been presented with an opportunity. An opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Destroying the noodle boy's friend and stealing the dragon blade!" he said, cackling maniacally.
Despite her current predicament, Mei still managed to roll her eyes as the demon's overly dramatic declaration. As he continued to cackle, Mei felt herself losing breath as Red Sons hands continued to tighten around her throat. Suddenly, she got an idea. While Red Son was laughing, she used all of her strength to kick him directly in the gut, causing him to recoil and drop Mei.
"Argh! You peasant!" he shouted, clutching his stomach.
Taking the opportunity, Mei quickly rushed over and picked up the sword. In his rage, Red Son coated his fist in fire and ran directly towards Mei, ready to send her flying with a single punch. However, Mei was ready, and when his fist came flying towards her, she blocked it with the face of the dragon sword. She counterattacked by swiping the sword at him, which Red Son dodged by leaping backwards.
Landing on his feet, he shouted "Why must you be so annoying!" Mei pressed the button on her outfit which returned her to her regular outfit.
"Hey! You're the one picking a fight with me in the middle of the night! I'd say you're the more annoying one here" she said, placing her hands on her hips disapprovingly.
"If I annoy you so much, hand me the sword and I'll be on my way" he said, trying to remain calm, although his eyes began twitching.
"No way! Why do you even want this thing anyways? I already beat the bull clone that tried to steal it"
"Well, some of us seem content with failure" said Red Son, looking downwards at the ground, clenching his fists, "but not me! Now give me the dragon blade!" he shouted, shooting flames behind him to propel himself towards Mei. Red Son began throwing punch after punch at Mei who was frantically weaving in between each attack. "Stand still and let me hit you!" he said as his hair erupted into flames.
"Never!" she cried. She couldn't dodge forever though, as she was being backed into a wall by Red Son's attempt to destroy her. After dodging another punch, Mei quickly rolled out of the way, allowing Red Son to punch the concrete wall in front of him. The attack left a crack in the wall, but left Red Son reeling as he held his hand in pain. "That's quite the punch Red Boy!"
"It's Red Son, peasant!" he shouted, launching himself into the air to attack her from above.
Mei quickly side stepped out of the way before she rushed towards him, swinging her sword. Red Son moved away, but the blade grazed his face, giving him a small cut. He leaped up onto a pile of rubble away from Mei, briefly feeling the cut on his face with his hand. He felt a small bit of blood seeping from the wound. He then ignited his hand, pressing it against the cut and sealing it.
"Wow. That's pretty handy" said Mei, with her hands behind her back. Red Son gasped, shocked at how quickly Mei had scaled the rubble to watch him heal himself.
"What! How did you-!?"
Mei grinned, saying "Haven't you heard? I'm pretty fast!", before running towards the demon boy, ready to attack him. Red Son stepped to the side of the attack and extended his hand, preparing to shoot a fireball towards her. Mei, seeing Red Son preparing to torch her, quickly jumped down to the base of the rubble and began running towards where her bike had crashed, evading the multiple fireballs Red Son was shooting at her.
"Get back here!" Red Son said, transforming into a ball of fire to catch up to her.
Mei stopped herself and covered her face with her arm as a fireball landed directly in front of her. Red Son emerged from the fire, gritting his teeth as his hair erupted into a column of fire.
"Enough of your stupidity! I'm not letting you escape! I will have the dragon blade, no matter what!" he yelled, slamming both of his hands onto the ground. The fire from the explosion began to travel along the dirt, past Mei, and creating a ring around the two of them. Red Son twisted the palms of his hands in the dirt, causing the ring around them to create a wall of fire surrounding them both. Mei began to get worried, gripping the hilt of her blade tightly and adopting a fighting stance.
"Guess you're really serious 'bout this huh? Well, I can get serious too!" she said, rushing towards Red Son. She swung her blade at the irritated demon, but he anticipated her attack. He quickly jumped out of the way and delivered a kick to her back, making her stumble. Red Son ignited his fist once more and punched her face. Mei spun around before regaining her footing.
She began feeling the bruise that had formed on her cheek, before turning around and rushing him again, swinging the sword horizontally. Red Son ducked however, punching her in the stomach and sending her flying towards the wall of fire. As she tumbled through the air, she stabbed her sword into the ground just before she hit the column of fire, slamming herself into the ground in the process.
As she struggled to pull herself up with the dragon blade, Mei clutched her stomach, panting. Her entire body was in pain. Her face still stung from the brief burn given from Red Sons punch. She stood up, before looking around to find Red Son slowly walking towards her, both his hair and eyes still ablaze. Mei pulled the blade out from the ground, almost losing her balance as she did so. She pointed the tip of the dragon blade at Red Son, ready to destroy him with a beam attack.
Red Son stopped walking towards her, a smile forming on his face.
"Heh, you're awfully persistent pony girl. But it seems your stubbornness can only get you so far!" he shouted, igniting his hands in blazing fire, before clapping them together bringing the wall of fire closer to both of them.
Mei watched as the fire wall separated when it got closer to Red Son, allowing him to walk away from it safely. Now completely surrounded by flames and desperate to find a way out, Mei looked around, saying, "Come on, there's gotta be some sort of spot that Red Baby missed". But there wasn't. In every single direction, there was fire, and it was getting closer and closer. She could hear Red Sons voice from outside the fire wall, but the flames were too loud to hear anything. "Aw poop" she said weakly.
She held the dragon blade in both of her hands, saying to it with slight tears in her eyes "I guess this is goodbye dragon sword. I'm gonna miss you". As the walls got closer and closer, Mei began reflecting on how she got to this point. "You know, I really thought I'd go out fighting something cooler, like a giant mech, or demon kings. Not Red Boy"
Suddenly, as if in response, the dragon blade began sparking some kind of electricity. Mei felt a sudden burst of energy pulse through her body. "W-what is this?!" she exclaimed, gripping the hilt of the sword in her hands once more. The frequency of the electricity increased, as Mei made a split-second decision. She raised the sword up and pierced the earth at her feet with it. A bright energy pulsed from the sword, creating a shockwave that dissipated all of the flames surrounding her.
As the columns began to close in on themselves, Red Son cackled, his hair returning to normal.
"This is it Dragon-Horse girl! Your stubbornness is finally at an end! Your sword is mine!" However, green lightning began sparking from the flame tornado. "What? No!" cried Red Son, as a green shockwave burst out from the flames, extinguishing them. Among the random sparks of green lightning stood Mei, her eyes glowing jade, clutching the dragon sword in her right hand. "No! I had you! I almost had you!" Red Son yelled, almost frothing at the mouth with embers leaping off his hair.
"But you didn't! And now, you're gonna pay!" she yelled angrily, a green aura now surrounding her body.
Mei shot up into the sky, summoning her dragon aura. The body of the dragon winded around the demolition site, with the head being where Mei currently floated. The head of the dragon looked downwards to face Red Son, who was currently shaking in fear, and charged up a powerful beam of energy.
Red Son ignited a flame in the palm of his hand and threw it at his feet, swallowing him into a small flame which flew away to the top of one of the nearby wrecked buildings. As he reformed on top of the building, Red Son watched as the dragons fired its jade beam, decimating the patch of land he was previously standing on.
"Why did I think this would work?! I couldn't have possibly hoped to stand a chance!" he yelled to himself. He looked upwards at the winding figure of the dragon aura which towered over the earth, he noticed Mei floating within the head of the dragon. Before he could think of any sort of plan, the dragons head turned towards Red Son, and began charging another energy beam.
Without hesitation, Red Son transformed himself into a fireball to escape the dragons attack, flying from rooftop to rooftop all while beam after beam decimated the buildings behind him. As the dragons beam was about to catch up with him, Red Son quickly flew down the back of a building, narrowly avoiding the beam as it cut through the decrepit skyscraper.
Reforming at the base of the tower, Red Son began creeping around the side of the building, watching the dragon aura as it scanned the terrain for him while debris hit the ground around it. The dragon girl is much more powerful than I thought. That power seems to be coming from the sword he thought to himself, If I can just reach her somehow, and take the sword away, she'll be powerless!
He noticed that the dragon aura was breathing heavily, the base of its throat pulsating. She must have used up most of her energy in that one attack. Perhaps I could exhaust all her power, then fly up to her and take the blade he thought, chuckling to himself at the idea of a victory like that. Walking around the side of the skyscraper, he ignited his hands in fire and held up his arms in front of his face, preparing for the inevitable attack that was about to come his way. The dragons head turned to see Red Son standing at the base of a tower.
Red Son could see the small figure of Mei floating in the air, pointing the dragon sword at him. At the same time, the dragon aura opened its maw, a green orb of energy forming just in front of its mouth. Red Son flared up, as fire began to circle around him into some kind of shield. Mei began to yell as she unleashed the full power of the dragon blade upon the ball of fire that had formed below her.
Red Son extended his arms out just as the beam was about to hit him, splitting the blast onto both sides of the fire shield. As he pushed against the blast, he began to sweat. His knees were getting weaker, and he could feel himself being physically pushed backwards by the weight of the blast. Mei continued firing the blast, eventually grabbing onto the blade with both of her hands, gripping tightly onto the hilt. Eventually however, the beam began to fizzle out.
Mei was panting, tired from the amount of energy she put into that blast. Red Son fell to his knees, weakened, but still alive. He looked up to see the dragon aura flickering as Mei floated in the air.
"Finally!" he shouted, transforming himself into a fireball once again and flying up to Mei.
"What! He's still here!?" yelled Mei in disbelief, bracing herself for Red Sons attack.
The flying flame collided into Mei, sending both of them further up in the air. As Red Son began to reform, he saw the dragon blade above him and began reaching for it. However, Mei stopped him by punching him in the face, causing Red Son to begin tumbling through the air. Falling towards the ground, the pair began weakly hitting each other trying to reach the dragon sword. Seeing that they were about to hit the ground, Red Son began to transform himself into a fireball once again, but Mei grabbed onto his back.
"Argh! Let go of me you noodle brain!" he shouted, as Mei clung onto his back. Fire began to swirl around both of them, condensing them both into a small fire ball. The ball of fire began darting all around the air, before spiralling towards the earth. Just before hitting the ground, it changed its direction, now flying just above the ground and racing towards the ruins of a building. The fireball began to break apart, causing Mei and Red Son to emerge and tumble along the ground, their momentum only being stopped once they hit a concrete wall, knocking them both out.
As Red Son awoke, all he could hear was the sound of stray laser blasts and the random grunts from the bull clones. He opened his eyes to find that he had been propped against a wall. He touched his face, felling the multiple sloppily pasted band-aids hanging off of his cuts and scrapes. That's when he remembered what had happened. He began looking around, seeing Mei in the distance shooting at bull clones which were running away with random bits of junk.
"Get back with those parts you bull clone bullies!" she yelled, firing off yet another beam of energy which the bull clones scrambled around to dodge.
Red Son exploded into flames, screaming "Dragon-horse girl!". He tried standing up but fell face first onto the ground instead, his fiery hair returning to normal. Both his legs and his arms felt weak. Mei stopped firing beams at the bull clones when she saw that Red Son had just woken up. She walked over to him and attempted to help him up.
"Need some help there, Red Boy?" she said, smirking, while reaching her hand out.
Red Son batted her hand away, saying "Stay away from me peasant! I don't need help, especially from you"
"Really? You look a bit beat up" she said, referring to the multiple cuts and scrapes he got from tumbling along the ground.
"Of course, I look beaten up. You crashed us into a building!"
"Oh yeah, I did, didn't I? Well, you were trying to kill me and steal my sword so…" she said, holding her hands behind her back mockingly while smirking.
"Why are you still here?" he said, gritting his teeth, "Shouldn't you be walking away, celebrating that a noodle brain like you beat me in a fight?"
"Well, I would, but your bull clones keep stealing the parts of my bike before I can repair it" she said, turning to the bull clones that were sitting on the ground, playing with the motorcycle parts. "Also, I didn't wanna to go to jail for murder, so I was making sure you weren't dead"
"Murder?! You were shooting lasers at me, and you were concerned about killing me?!" he shouted.
"It's fine, you could probably take it!" she said waving her hand dismissively, "I think"
Red Son gave her an annoyed look.
"For the record, I wasn't really aiming to kill you! Just trying to scare you off"
"Scare me off? You brought down almost all of the buildings in this wreck!" he yelled, pointing at the pile of rubble in the distance.
"Welp, couldn't have done it without your pops, could I?"
As Mei giggled to herself, Red Son noticed a familiar chain hanging out of her jacket pocket. He jumped up from where he was sitting and snagged it while she was staring at the bull clones. "Hey!"
"Why did you have this?!" he said, holding up his silver necklace, which bore the emblem of the demon bull family.
"Oh, that thing? Yeah, it fell out of your coat. So, I just took it"
"You… took it?" he asked, a confused expression forming on his face.
"Yeah. It looked pretty cool! Did you make it yourself?" she asked, "if you did, that would be pretty surprising since you also created those things". Mei pointed to the bull clones who were throwing the bike parts at each other. Red Son frowned.
"And you're welcome by the way. While you were knocked out, your face was planted in the dirt, so I picked you up and placed you against the wall, as well as patching you up!"
"Why are you like this?!" he yelled, "Why are you acting so childish when you looked ready to kill me just a few moments ago?!"
"I don't know. I guess I just don't hold grudges, unlike you" she shrugged. "Anyways, we gonna go for round 2?" she asked, adopting a battle stance.
While he attempted to stand up, Red Son suddenly felt weak at his knees, kneeling on the ground while still clutching the necklace. "Hm. So much for 'Not being content with failure'" she said, mimicking his pompous tone. "Why'd you even want the dragon blade to begin with?"
Red Son opened his hand to look at the necklace, staring at the bull symbol engraved on the object. Mei watched him in confusion, waiting for an answer, but Red Son continued looking at the necklace.
"Eh, that's fine. It's already really late and my parents are probably dialling the police right now" she said, chuckling to herself.
"Bull clones! We're leaving!" shouted Red Son before standing up and limping towards the group of now attentive bull clones.
"Hey, does this mean I win?!" she asked Red Son as he was limping away. Red Son just scoffed, ignoring her. "A tie? Okay then! See you later for the rematch!".
One of the bull clones stood up, walked over to Red Son, helping him place his arm over its shoulders.
"Can I at least have my bike parts back?"
Red Son turned to look at her, before speaking to one of his bull clones. "Snarl, hand her the bike parts"
The bull clone, 'Snarl' as it was called, hastily made its way towards Mei and dropped all of the bike parts it had scavenged from the motorcycles wreckage. Snarl then scrambled away as Mei glared at it, before turning her attention back to Red Son.
"Thank you!" she called out.
"Take us back to my inferno jet please" he said, gritting his teeth, "I don't want to be here anymore". The clone grunted, carrying Red Son in the direction of his jet, with the other bull clones trailing behind.
Mei tried to hide it, but she was feeling pain across her whole body. She dropped the parts she was returned and began clutching her stomach, thinking to herself, "I'm gonna need a doctor tomorrow. I think I'll just ditch the bike and come back for it later. Taking a bus can't hurt, right?"
And with that, Mei began making the long trek home. Meanwhile, Red Son hopped into his inferno jet, with his bull clones grabbing random spots of the jet to hold onto. As he started the jets engines, he was wondering how he would explain this to his parents.
It wouldn't matter though, since they weren't too focused on him anyway. They had bigger plans in store.