Mystic Dragon Cadets

Tegan was handed some delicious street food as she walked around the bunker. It reminded her of a farmers market. She felt a small aftershock as Omens rampaged on the surface, luckily, there was a Dragon Tooth Slaughter Unit on standby.

Its been a month of mayhem since they arrived at the underground bunker and now everything seems under control. Tegan had no idea where her friends were, but she could always fly around if she got tired of sightseeing and being a loner.

"Greenhorns are forbidden from joining the Zodiac mission!" said the announcement.

She saw a flurry as something landed right in her path, it was a small beanbag. The colors were black, green and purple with a hilarious stick figure and the words - Adults are dirtbags.

"Sorry!" said a small voice.

A boy around 8 rushed over and scooped up the beanbag, behind him 3 more kids strolled over. Two were girls and two were boys, everyone looked to be around 8, 10 and 11.

"Are you a Dior?" The girl lifted her dragon mask, she looked to be 11 and smiled brightly.

Tegan nodded. "Yeah, I'm also a Cadet.”

"Sweet!" on the girl's shoulder a dragon appeared. "I'm suppose to go to bootcamp next year.”

The 8 year old boy had a clumsy dragon under his legs. "Whats your name?"

"I'm Tegan Thorne," she smiled. "You guys?"

The 11 year old boy holding a half eaten snowcone spoke. "I'm Sawyer, this is Max, Jake, and that's Odette."

"How old are you?" asked Jake.

Tegan tossed her trash. "I'm 16."

Max was 10 & kicked the beanbag onto her other foot. "Whats your rank?"

"I'm a Beta," Tegan saluted as Patches made himself known.

"Want to play hacky sack with us?" Odette pulled down her dragon mask.

Tegan lifted her leg and kicked the beanbag into the air, she twisted and bumped it towards Sawyer. He did a few tricks with the hacky sack before passing it to Max, the girl did a reverse kick and it soared towards Odette and then finally to Jake. Despite her concerns she let loose a laugh as the hacky sack jumped into the air, thats when she noticed a massive crowd at one of the tents up ahead.

Now, Tegan was not a curious person but she thought she saw a familiar face in the sea of people. The game abruptly came to a halt as she waved goodbye to the kids she befriended and made her way towards the crowd. She had to pass a few stands and stopped at two, one was selling Valentine's chocolate while the other had veggie bites.

Patches was very happy when she tossed him some veggie snacks, the chocolate wasn't bad as she broke the heart again and took bites. There was a woman at the front of the crowd, she had beautiful black skin, afro-puff hair, diamond earrings, amber eyes, red lipstick, and was wearing a denim suit, red wedges with a fancy sash strapped across her body.

"When we depart I want you all to keep in mind that the Omens are Intelligent now," Mayor O'Connor said. "Be cautious and be fierce!"

Tegan spotted Principal Salazar nestled between a woman and a man, she zig-zaged through people and grabbed his sleeve. The Vietnamese man craned his neck. His dark eyes looked empty as rings wrapped around them.

"Good day Ms. Thorne," Principal Salazar greeted but to her it did not seem like he was having a good day.

"I know the planet is dying because of the Zodiac Nests," Tegan whispered.

The Principal raised an accusing eyebrow. "How do you know that?"

"Does it really matter at this point!" Tegan tried to keep her voice respectful and balanced. "I just want you to know I understand what's at stalk on this mission."

He sighed. "You're a brave one despite your condition."

30 minutes later, Tegan landed near the dragon statue where her friends were gathered. They weren't alone, Sir Jonah, Nolan, Marcy Sinclair and Mayor O'Connor was among them.

"Hey," Tegan waved her drink. She was dressed in a comfy cardigan outfit with a graphic-t that says Late Bloomer and black sneakers.

"Were almost ready to depart," Sir Jonah announced.

Tegan was stunned. "Your coming with?"

"Things have changed," the Mystic Knight admitted as he twirled something in his hand. "Our new mission is to help take down the Zodiac Nests while keeping an eye on Miss Sinclair, she's coming along."

"He means me," Nolan added as he flipped his cane. "I'll be keeping an EYE on her."

She couldn't help but smirk.

Nolan titled his head and smiled with his dark sunglasses on. "You got my blind joke? Yeah, I guess I have a morbid sense of humour. But, don't worry I have moves you haven't SEEN yet."

"About the transportation," Mayor O'Connor explained. "We have a blimp that will..."

The Mayor was cut off by giggling and that giggling was coming from Ms. Sinclair. "No good, no good, I have better way!"

She noticed that the Mayor looked surprisingly calm, its known that Ms. Sinclair doesn't have the best reputation in town being labeled as insane. When Tegan first met her she had no preconceived notions about the woman, mental health is a huge thing that people seem to not grasp.

Sir Jonah quickly spoke to the Mayor before turning to face the blonde woman. "What's this better way you speak of Miss Sinclair?"

It was a 15 minute walk to the mystery location that Ms. Sinclair ranted about. They stopped at a cave and to the left was a pile of tree branches, bushes, weeds, and dead flowers. Tegan scanned her surroundings for a clue, but found nothing. Maybe it was in the cave?

"So where's this transportation?" DeMarco McCoy asked.

"There," Miss Sinclair walked over and ripped open the pile of greenery.

Hidden underneath was an old train, it seemed clean but not shiny. Lost tech normally gets damaged by the elements over time, from what Tegan knew all trains were shut down because they were adding to the pollution. Underground subway stations are popular but dangerous, if an Omen attacks nearby the tunnels could collapse. The safest alternatives are sky, land and sometimes ocean.

"Interesting," Mayor O'Connor said.

"I can drive too," Miss Sinclair pulled out a steam train manual.

"May I?" Mayor O'Connor held out her hand.

The blonde woman paused for a long time before handing the manual over like it was a precious secret.

An hour later, people gathered near the stainless steel and black stone steam train. Tegan was carrying a backpack with stuff retrieved from the Academy. When it was her turn she noticed a guard at the entrance. This was a security measure to make sure Greenhorns don't sneak on, a big rule Principal Salazar came up with. After confirming Tegan's identity she was allowed aboard.

The inside of the train was fancy and she had to admit Ms. Sinclair did a pretty good job fixing up the place, this had to be a hobby, something to help with her PTSD. She took a seat in the middle and gazed out the window, Cadets started to swarm with a few Mystic Knights sprinkled in. Asha decided to sit down across from her, she was now her train buddy...apparently.

"Ngl," Asha said. "I'm sorta nervous."

"Same," Tegan sighed.

"Really?" Asha crossed her arms. "Why are you going then? We do have a choice."

"Just want to help," Tegan said her words carefully.

Asha smiled. "My brother and I are environmentalists, we want to protect the earth. We also want our game ElementBall to become an Extreme sport."

"Wow," Tegan exclaimed. "So what do you know about the Zodiac Nests?"

"Well. I was told they are dangerous to the planet," Asha explained. "Thats all I needed to hear."

Tegan wanted to say you have no idea, but she just took out the prism quote Sloan gave her. "Thanks for being my train buddy."

Two cadets ran up to Jonah who stood in the doorway, one was a girl wearing blue and the other was Dean.

"All 4 boilers are filled with water," said the girl.

Sir Jonah nodded. "Good job."

Dean gave the girl a high-five before disappearing down the train. There was a makeshift map pinned to the wall with 7 Easter eggs drawn on it, 2 had red X's.

"A path is clear," Kiba entered the train followed by Lisa.

"Brilliant!" Sir Jonah clapped. "Okay, I need all fire cadets to line up."

Tegan, Vincent, DeMarco, and another girl faced the Mystic Knight. It took her a minute to recognize the girl on the end. Her name was Faith and she had pale skin, long brown hair, heterochromia eyes, some freckles across her nose, and wore a uniform.

"You guys will help heat the engine," Sir Jonah said. "And by that I mean your dragons, they will be put inside a cold furnace and than combust to heat up the water in the boilers."

"Who wants to volunteer first?" Nolan asked, his golden eyes blazing. "I'll escort you to the engine room."

"I don't mind," Vincent summoned Xoey.

Tegan watched Nolan, Ms. Sinclair and Vincent disappear behind a door. She frowned and thought about her family...despite each state having their own bunker she was still worried. That's when Jonah Maverickson, otherwise known as ParadoxBourne, took out a pager? Stuff like a pager is very old technology and she only knows about this because of Vincent. Than he pulled out a red marker and crossed out another egg on the map. Suddenly, the train started to move as the trees became blurry.

"The 3rd Zodiac Nest has fallen!" the Mystic Knight spoke proudly. "Our first location will be, The City Of Ember."