WHO: Rogue and Presto WHAT: Presto returns to Madison with a bang. As does a not-too friendly dragon. Rogue helps him "contain" it. WHEN: The 9th WARNINGS: Comic book violence, death of a npc (dragon) STATUS: Closed and Completed
Presto was swearing in Elvish. He was ducking past a wagon as flames roared over his head, encompassing the wagon, the nearby wall, and much of the space around him. A glimmering shield of force around him glowed brighter as fire licked against it, and he swore again, in Orcish this time.
He rolled out of the concealment, which was mostly gone now anyway, words falling form his lips, and a hand went up and snapped out forms, and a series of bluesih bolts of energy launched from his hands, shooting across the square and into the side of the giant red dragon facing him.
Tyriophylixis screamed in rage and pain and staggered, wounds showing along her body as rage showed in her eyes. “You will die, human! You will be slain and I will rule this land!”
“Of course I will! But not today! I’m afraid You are the only one dying today!” The dragon roared again and shot more fire toward him.
Presto knew help was coming, if he could just last long enough, which, of course, was the problem. What a day for the others to be out vacationing in the countryside! Damn it! Why had he come to Waterdeep again?
As the fire came toward him, he turned and dove toward an alleyway, just as a portal glimmering and bright, opened up in front of him.
Too close to stop, he rolled through it, and came to a halt on the other side, seeing a small park, then his eyes went wide as memories slammed home. Clutching his head, he cried out.
He was in Madison!
Then a roar sounded behind him, and he rolled instinctively away, finding himself near a monkey swing. Thankfully, there were no kids nearby as the dragon dragged herself out of the portal and into Madison.
“Oh, shit.”
*** Rogue was out running - there was nothing else to do that day and she wasn’t going to see Nico for drinks until later - when Presto dove out of the portal followed by a dragon. She was glad she had seen a dragon before and wasn’t knocked off her feet by the fact there was a fucking dragon in the middle of the park.
“Merde!” she spat out as she dug through the voices in her head. She knew who Presto was, at least, with claws out Logan was strong and he smelled the same, and spotted him as he swung up out of the way. “Christ you don’t come back to Madison Valley without a bang do you kid?” she snarked - she’d seen Erin’s post after all - as she popped a set of claws and darted towards him.
“Come on - tell me about what to do here. Beyond telling me to just turn it into shredded dragon meat.” she yelled as she jumped up on top of the monkey bars to get a better vantage point, she was waiting for his word though, though she was coiled to attack. Blood dripped from where the claws popped out then dried up as it healed.
***
“Rogue? Well, hells, I may survive this yet!”
Fire flared out, and, ducking, Presto swore as he flung a flare of blue force that spun into small globes and slid toward the thing, hitting the neck, the eyes, and the underbelly near the chest. . Those three spots glowed a sickly green against the red scales as the dragon roared in outrage.
“Those spots! Neck, heart, and eyes, those are the most vulnerable. Enough damage to any of them and she will fall.” Already the areas were scarred, and her wings were scarred and had holes in various places, which was why she was not flying.
***
Rogue took a flying leap off the monkey bars, Angel's wings sprouting as she jumped so she could get enough height to go for the neck, rolling out of the way of a spurt of fire. She grumbled this was not what she planned on for the day.
But the thrill of a fight took over.
She dug her talons into her neck and slid down, swinging to jump out of the way, moving easily even as she got thumped with the dragon's head. She was laughing though.
***
Presto grinned as he watched her for a moment. She was something else, yes she was. She reminded him of his friend Diana. He smirked as he gathered his thoughts, focusing on the now. He was back in Madison, but before he could rejoice, he needed to get rid of this Dragon.
Avoiding where Rogue was, Presto shouted a word of power. A gleaming silver ray shot out and hit the dragon, burning into the scales around it’s eyes and sparking into those eyes, making it scream again.
It was thrashing in response to Rogue’s actions, and presto grinned again. “Yes! Keep it up!”
*** Rogue swung around and hooked a claw in to swing back up over the dragon’s neck. She faltered as her hand laid on the scales to give her a brace, the thoughts of the dragon rushing into her head, she growled in surprise and threw herself off before she could steal anymore. She hit the ground and rolled, growling the entire time. Logan was strong right now and she let the feral take over while she regrouped from the unexpected power draw.
“Fuck you you overgrown reptile.” she snarled out as she shook her head clear, and pushed off the ground, diving in to sink those claws in one of the places that Presto had highlighted for her, careful, this time, to not touch skin to scale. She was drawing on it in her head, though, to tell her where it was hurting.
She never stopped moving - the last thing she wanted was those jaws around her or a bout a flame tearing across her hide. She was going to have bruises from half the hits, that would fade in about an hour, but she was aiming for nothing more.
***
“Rogue! Get down! Fire in the hole!”
As the dragon roared and began to draw breath for flame breath, he clapped his hands and blew a breath of air as he chanted, a sprinkling of peppermint falling into the wind, and suddenly a cone of cold shot from his hands right at the mouth of the thing. Snow, and ice, and bitter cold winds slammed into the mouth as a fire billow started out. The two met and detonated and the head of the dragon was wreathed in the explosion, as it staggered, nearly dead, but still barely standing.
“Damn it.”
***
Rogue hit the dirt, rolling as she did so. She watched in awe as the dragon still was alive after that. She wiped dust from her eyes. “Oh fuck you you reptile” she growled and launched up off the ground and punched her claws up under it's jaw, trying to punch through to finish it off.
She pulled her claws out and tumbled to land on her toes, wings against her back, claws in the dirt, eyes narrowed. “Please just die already.” She growled a bit.
***
The dragon staggered, snarled at her, and opened her mouth to speak… and collapsed, face first, into the dirt.
Presto grinned, sighed, then fell over, groaning. He chuckled, staring up at the sky as he lay there on his back. “Fuck dragons. Fuck the Realms. I’m home.” He closed his eyes chuckled, then groaning. Ow.
He was a little hurt, but nothing his healing potion wouldn’t cure. He downed it and pulled out another to hold out to Rogue. “Want a healing potion to help with the healing? Also thanks for not letting it get me dead. That would have sucked.”
*** She slipped backwards into the dirt, too. “Fuck not what I was expecting on my run, bub.” She willed the wings away, resheathing the claws, stretching as she kicked the dragon head.
“What are we gonna do with this? I can drag it back through and toss it?” She asked as she looked over at him. “Thanks but I don't need it. I'll be good in a minute.” The bruises were already fading.
“Yeah no problem. Did you know my power works on sentient dragons? Yeah me either. I have a headache the size of Alaska.” She dragged herself to her feet, grabbed the dragon by a foot. If he gave the ok, she'd drag it through the portal and leave it there.
***
Presto grinned. “No need. If you will step back?” When she did, he cast a spell and the dragon shrank, and he cast a second spell which drew the body and blood all into a small bottle. “I can cook it and harvest the scales and teeth and claws later. The meat is really good. Better than steak.”
He nodded, and spoke yet another spell, so a shimmer ran over his skin, before he quite simply hugged Rogue. The shield spell protected him from all alteration.
“And No, I did not know your power worked on dragons. That must hurt a little. That bastard was from the underdark, from the Undermountain, to be exact. His head is probably not a fun place.” But she probably now knew where his lair and his bounty was.
***
Rogue let go and stepped back, hands on her hips. “Well that's handy now isn't it?” She shook her head, magic! She smiled a bit then stiffened under his hug. Spell or not she was still paranoid.
“Yeah, I can probably tell you how much stuff the dragon was hoarding. I do not recommend getting one stuck in your head. I need a few drinks, then I'll get it wrenched into a box somewhere.” She looked back at the portal.
“Portal home? “ she asked with a grin.
***
“Yeah. Danger, doom, lots of death, mad gods, weird happenings, worlds merging and dying, and others growing, and lots of fun, too. But… yeah. This is home for me. Gods… I’ve been gone eleven years. How long has it been here?”
He was coming down now and breathing heavy, sitting again, eyes wide.
He cracked his neck, then reached into his robes and pulled out a pouch. “Here. I know you didn’t do it for that, but thank you.” And the pouch was pitched toward her, full of 100 real gold pieces.
“If you want to go lair hunting, later, if this portal lasts, let me know. I’ve been down there.”
*** “Uhh a week or so give or take a few days?” She said then grinned, “sounds like my kind of party, I'll have to go explore because I could totally blow off some steam.” She laughed softly then sighed
“Eleven years huh? Long time. Welcome back to Madison Valley.” Then she caught the bag, blinking, “uh I don't really need you to give me anything. I just didn't want you squished by a dragon or the town fire roasted.” Though the thief in her grinned. This was a lot of money.
“Uh yes yes I do. I've got the path back in here. I am so up for lair hunting. This thing hoarded.” She grinned widely.
***
Presto smirked. “Sounds like fun. But I need a shower, and to go see Erin. After that, I am totally up for it.” More cash was always welcome. And a portal here meant he could do some business and come back and rest at long last.
Damn, this was awesome!
“Gods. So little time here. That is crazy. I’ve been across worlds since I left. I long ago gave up coming back here.”
He shook his head. What the heck?
*** She tucked the coins away, paused,”guess I should exercise some caution going through?” She grinned widely, “you do all that and let people know, yeah? I'll uh I'll uh be blowing off some steam”
Rogue just smiled.
“Go shoo, I'm gonna go have fun. “
***
Presto waggled his eyebrows, and grinned at her. “A little. Be careful, There are things over there that can kill even you.” Not many mind you, but there were.
Presto grinned at her again. “Have fun. Say hi to Mirt if you see him, and try not to be toooo wild.” he snerked.
***
Rogue paused before she stepped through, “I almost want to see what could manage to kill me.” she laughed wickedly, wildly, as she waved behind her as she stepped on through. “I will make no promises, my friend, no promises at all.”
With that she was gone, happy to slip into a world like his where she could be her for a few. Even if there were things that might try to eat her. That was half the fun, wasn’t it?
***
Presto watched her go, and sighed. “That will be trouble. Oh yes it will.” he chuckled and turned to head home. After so very long. He was home.
Yes!
***
Rogue was ~always~ trouble and letting her go unescorted into the portal was probably the worst idea known to man. Not only that but she had a pouch full of gold and an attitude problem. She moved easily among the people, disappearing into one of the many taverns, hunting her way through the town to find what she wanted.
A good bounty to hunt.
Presto could almost, probably, hear her laughter ring out on the breeze as she disappeared to cause some hell.