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“Mr Penn, Mr Paynn, I and all the staff would like to formally welcome you to the Academy,” began Sentrus when the two rivals and their dragons entered into the vast and luxuriously decorated entry hall of the building that held the record for being the tallest structure in all of Dragon City for millennia... at east until some annoying Paynn in the butt decided to built a taller one a couple decades ago, that is. “Over the next years, this is the place where you will learn, train, fight and triumph in order to grow into the fiercest elite racers known to the world...”
What ensued was an overly long speech about how long the Academy’s been around, the role it’s played in Dragon City’s history and how many of history’s most iconic figures graduated from it, along with some other stuff, bla bla bla, it was far too boring to be all included here, and neither Artha, Moordryd, Beau nor Decepshun paid attention to it anyway. Once she finished this introductory speech of the most unstimulating kind, a short dark-brown-haired man that neither Artha, Moordryd nor their companions had noticed until then stepped forward to stand next to Sentrus. He looked... pretty unassuming. He didn’t look that old, but did show early signs of balding. He didn’t look tired, but he wasn’t bursting with energy either. He looked as if he found this meeting about as exciting as deciding which tone of white the paper used for the cleaning supply refill requests should be, but didn’t seem annoyed nor defeated by it either. He simply looked as if this was what there was to life. In a city with as lively and colourful a sense of fashion as Dragon City’s, his clothes made him look invisible with how little could be pointed out or stood out. They were just... clothes.
“This is Cayyus Pyuupous,” presented Sentrus, head turned towards the short man, “he is the institution’s groundskeeper, and he will be showing you the essential parts of the Academy you will want to know about for the start of your studies here. However,” she then interjected to Cayyus in a low voice, “you will not need to show them the library. Through some previous... adventure, they are already familiar with its location,” she ended by looking at Artha with dissatisfaction.
“With that,” she proceeded, “I will take my leave. Once more, welcome to the Academy, and best of luck in your time here.”
As Sentrus left, the four latest recruits of the Academy turned towards the groundskeeper.
“Very well. If you’ll follow me, we’ll start by heading to the main training grounds,” he said in an emotionless tone, before starting to walk in some odd fashion where his head would bob forward in sync with his steps.
The hallways within the Academy would have been impressive in their vast size, gold ornamentation (lots of + shapes everywhere, what’s up with that?), but Artha had already been in here before. However, it did feel weird to be able to walk in here without having to worry about not being seen. At least now he wouldn’t have to worry about encountering laser traps-
“Why is there a laser trap ahead of us?” asked Artha, as they turned a corner and got confused at the sight in front of him.
“Oh, don’t pay any attention to that one,” answered Cayyus, confusing him even more, “it doesn’t actually work.”
“Huh? What do you mean it doesn’t work?” continued Artha, ever more confused.
“The laser does not actually set off any alarms, here,” Cayyus then demonstrated by walking through the trap. Indeed, nothing happened.
“Huh? But last time I came here, I tried to get Artha and his friends in trouble by walking through one, and it did set of an alarm” Moordryd accidentally confessed out loud.
“So that WAS you!” accused Artha, confused all replaced by anger, while Beau began growling at Moordryd. It’s sad, really. Had this not happened, we might have broken records of confusion within an individual, but alas, it was not meant to be.
“Oh, some traps do work, yes,” interrupted Cayyus, before this exchange could get fun. Sorry folks, it’s not yet time to take out that popcorn. “Some are still fully functional, but others have stopped working a long time ago.”
“Why don’t you fix them?” asked Artha.
“How do you know which ones work and which ones don’t?” also asked Moordryd.
“We would like to repair them,” began the groundskeeper, “but the budget has not been allocated to perform the necessary maintenance. Accounting has determined that the cost of getting them operational again is not worth any extra security we would get from them being fully operational. Even in their current state, they still are an effective deterrent against trespassers.” Cayyus then looked at Moordryd, “Alas, I am afraid that the only way to know which ones are glorified decorations is by finding out manually and remembering.”
As they marched onwards, they reached the training grounds. Artha suspected they might be large, but he never expected them to be this large! He could barely see the wall on the other side! Inside, multiple pairs of humans and dragons were sparring together, practising mag techniques Artha had barely heard of. The idea that he’d one day learn and master all of them felt... awe-inspiring.
“This is the main training area,” presented Cayyus Pyuupous, “it is free and open to be used whenever you need it. You may train on your own, or spar with a rival, or any other use you see fit. However, I will warn you ahead of time that it comes with a pie cannon.”
Both humans and dragons all looked at the groundskeeper incredulously. A pie cannon?
“We don’t know why it was originally installed, nor where all the pies come from” explained Cayyus, “but the administration believes that it firing at random intervals helps keep the people in the training room alert. So, up next would be the main cafeteria,” he added as he began walking once more, still bobbing his head forward.
The cafeteria did not end up being that far away. Follow a few signs around corners, two more broken laser traps, and they were there. The cafeteria was absolutely immense, but on closer inspection, you could see that very little of its space was dedicated to humans. There were a few tables spaced out far and wide, while the rest was clearly intended for dragons to eat alongside their riders.
“This is the main cafeteria. At any time of the day, you may come here and eat, and all the food is provided free of charge,” provided Cayyus.
“Wait all the food here is free?” repeated Moordryd, while all four recruits had sparkles in their eyes.
“Yes, completely free,” confirmed Cayyus, “Accounting wanted to put an end to that perk when they found out how much we were spending on produce and ingredients every year, either wanting to limit how much people and dragons could eat per day or begin charging Drakkles for it, but, well, a few angry stares from very large dragons and the threat of the destruction of paperwork was enough to convince them to keep the cafeteria free.”
“Really? Destruction of paperwork? That’s what matters to them?” wondered Artha.
“Oh yes! Any loss of financial records from previous years would be devastating, both for year-on-year monitoring of spending and for taxes! Any loss of permits, authorisations and signatures would cause entire departments of the Academy to crumble! It is absolutely imperative that we preserve all those records,” stressed Cayyus. “Oh, and back on the topic of this cafeteria, one last thing: you do not want to be in here at the 42nd minute of every hour.”
“Why?” asked Moordryd.
“There’s a mag overload that blasts the whole cafeteria,” dropped the groundskeeper.
“but... why?” reiterated Moordryd, who didn’t exactly love it when receiving an answer did not reduce the number of questions he had.
“Sadly, we do not know,” replied Cayyus. “We do not know what causes it, why, or how to stop it. It just is there.”
At this point, Artha and Moordryd remained silent, not sure if they wanted to find out any more.
“Right,” continued Cayyus Pyuupous, “finally, I’ll show you your sleeping quarters.” He then restarted walking with his characteristic bobbing motion with his head. Artha could’ve sworn it reminded him of a certain flying animal, but he couldn’t think of a single animal on Draconis that actually did that.
Artha, Moordryd, their dragons and their guide reached a fork. Oddly enough, there were directions only for the right side hallway, which indicated that, among other things, the student quarters were over there, but there was nothing on the left side. Moordryd, having noticed this detail as well, couldn’t help his curiosity and looked towards the left hallway to see if there was anything there. He saw that, after a few drac-metres, the hallway ended in a closed ancient ornamented door. This door was decorated with golden effigies of animal heads that Moordryd had never seen before, but seemed to be looking straight at him... without a single shred of intelligence in their eyes. How could Moordryd tell? Unfortunately, he himself did not know.
“What’s behind that door?” asked the silver-haired recruit, against his best judgement.
“Unfortunately, I cannot answer that question,” answered the groundskeeper.
“Why not, is it secret?” asked Artha in turn.
“No, not at all,” clarified Cayyus, “we just don’t know what’s behind it. No one knows how to open that door.”
“And no one wants to find out?” wondered Moordryd.
“Students always do when they first join the Academy, but none ever succeeded in opening that door,” replied Cayyus, who already knew he was standing in front of the two guys who would be the next to attempt it, “the staff itself of course are curious as well, but after decades of failed attempts, the Administration determined that the resources spent trying to answer this question would be better spent elsewhere in the budget. If you ever find out what’s behind it, please do tell the rest of us,” he casually finished, before proceeding into the right hallway.
“Sir,” began Artha, “does it not bother people that the Academy as all these... oddities about it? How are you able to keep working in here?”
“Eh, all the idiosyncrasies of the establishment are a part of its charm at this point,” casually answered Cayyus while still walking ahead. “You learn to live with and appreciate them.”
“Appreciate them?!” whispered Moordryd to Artha, who shook his shoulders.
After following Cayyus Pyuupous through a few more hallways, the Academy’s four latest recruits finally reached a hall filled large doors with numbers on top of them. Artha, Moordryd, Beau and Decepshun followed their tour guide until he stopped at the door numbered 475035.
“This will be your quarters,” announced the groundskeeper, looking at Artha.
“Right, and where will our quarters be?” then asked Moordryd.
“Oh, I’m sorry for not clarifying earlier,” apologised Cayyus, “these quarters will be for all four of you.”
“We’ll be staying in the same quarters? Why?!” Moordryd had been looking forward to staying in the Academy and not having to deal with his unbearable father, but now that he knew he’d be sharing a space with Stable Brat? Why, what did he do to deserve this?
... after a bit of thinking, perhaps it was better if that question remained rhetorical.
“Being that, normally, the Academy only accepts one new student and dragon each year,” explained Cayyus, still acting as if everything going on was the most normal thing in the world, “we only prepare one apartment per year as well. Accepting two duos, as has happened with you two, is unprecedented. Unfortunately, the Administration did not make such an exception when it came to sleeping accommodations.”
“So you mean to say that, in all this Academy, there is only one apartment that we can stay in?” asked Artha, bewildered, “there isn’t a single other empty one?”
“Oh, there are other vacant quarters, but we were only allowed to prepare one,” answered Cayyus.
“Can’t I just stay in one of them, even if it hasn’t been cleaned?” Moordryd figured it couldn’t be worse than the Dragon Eyes headquarters, surely!
“I would very strongly suggest against that, Mr Paynn,” discouraged Cayyus, “quarters that have not been prepared ahead of time are not suitable for habitation.”
“Right... so could you prepare another one, then?” continued Moordryd.
“Of course, once all required paperwork has been filed, permitted, and all the right signatures have been obtained, we will promptly prepare a second apartment,” agreed Cayyus. “With that, I shall leave you to unpack in your new quarters. Once more, welcome to the Dragon City Academy, and best of luck in your studies!”
The groundskeeper concluded by handing them their keycards to their quarters, and set off to his next duty. Artha, Moordryd and their two companions entered the apartment and took in the sights. Their quarters were... rather nice actually; on the left were dragon spaces, with a bed, an automatic bath that the dragon could use on their own, and a small recreational area. On the right, there was that looked like a bedroom, a fairly large bathroom, a kitchen with the latest in cooking appliances (closed to prevent dragons from coming in and stealing food as it’s being cooked, most likely), and finally in the centre, a common dining area and living room where dragons and humans could hang out together.
Now wait a minute, let’s look at that description again.
A dragon bed? A bedroom? As in, ONE?
“Screw that, I’d rather live in whatever that groundskeeper thinks isn’t livable than share a bed with you,” reacted Moordryd before getting out of the apartment and starting to look at the other apartments. Luckily for him, vacant apartments had been conveniently labelled “vacant” on their door. Unluckily for him, in a moment of shocking respect of privacy, his keycard turned out to only work on Stable Brat’s own apartment. Luckily for him, his years in the Down City crews and their... less than ethical activities... taught him how to pick open locks, so he still was able to open the doors and take a look inside.
Artha, who in the meantime had begun unpacking his things in his bedroom, would’ve guessed that this hunt might go well... until he heard Moordryd exclaiming “What?!” at... something. This exclamation repeated a minute later, was then followed by a “HOW?! WHY?!” another minute after that. At last, Artha heard a bunch of stuff falling on Moordryd, him escaping from under it, before finally making his way back into their official shared apartment, defeated.
“So, what did Cayyus mean by ‘not suitable for habitation’?” asked Artha, with what he wouldn’t admit was a little smile in the corner of his mouth.
“Paperwork,” began Moordryd in complete disbelief, “there’s so much paperwork in those vacant apartments that you can’t even see anything inside of them, let alone get inside!”
And so, to Moordryd’s great annoyance, Artha and he ended up becoming roommates.
++ *time skip* ++
Over the next few days, the new students got to become accustomed with their surroundings, having an easier time navigating the endless hallways, getting comfortable with their new classes and instructors, and also slowly learning the hard way which laser traps were just duds, and which ones would cause a horrendous ruckus that would bring endless amounts of embarrassment once the staff... well, Cayyus Pyuupous specifically every time, came to close the alarms. Artha and Moordryd quickly began noticing that, somehow, that groundskeeper was the only person they ever saw taking care of the school. No one else was ever seen cleaning or performing maintenance, or any other physical task.
However, throughout this time, there was one thing that always kept teasing Moordryd’s brain (inbreathiate... not a word /ref). That unknown door that no one could open. What was behind it? How was it possible that no one had yet found a way to open it?
And so he and Decepshun found themselves in front of it once more. They’d tried magging the door open at the same time, like they’d done in the Wastelands to get to the League of Eight’s bonemarks. Nothing happened. Right, if it were that easy, someone else would’ve opened this door long ago. What could no one else have tried already? Perhaps no one else had his lock-picking skills, so he tried inspecting the door. That also proved to be unsuccessful, as he couldn’t find any actual locks or mechanisms anywhere, and, well, lock-picking a door usually involves locks.
Then, an idea struck him. An idea he did not like. What if you had to mag the door open, but the colour of draconium mattered? Everyone had a variety of dominant colours, but a certain annoying brat was the first student in decades to have a dominant gold mag stream. Perhaps that could be the key?
The question now, then, was whether his curiosity about this door would overcome his annoyance of Penn... yes. Yes it did. So, he then made his way to their (ugh) shared apartment.
“Penn,” began Moordryd.
“That would be my last name, yes,” confirmed the Golden Boy.
“Gonna need to have you do something for me,” stated the Dragon Booster’s nemesis, but in and out of the armour.
“Unless what you want me to do is say no, what makes you think I would?” countered black-haired young adult (tween? Is that the term?).
“That door, that door that no one’s able to open,” explained Moordryd, “it might only respond to a gold mag stream.”
“You’re... of all the things you could want, you’re asking for my help opening a door?” asked Moordryd’s third favourite human roommate (an achievement considering he only had one human roommate).
“No, I am not asking for your help,” no, Moordryd was not in denial. “I’m... ordering you to do a job for me! Not asking for help! And you better do it, or else-”
“It’s alright, it’s alright,” laughed Stable Brat, “no need to threaten me. I guess I’m also curious. Sure, I’ll help”
“What did I say? I’m not asking for your help!” denied Moordryd once more. Sure, bud.
The Dragon of Legend and his loser of a rider then accompanied Moordryd and Decepshun back to that door. Together, they did something that most likely hadn’t been attempted in decades, if not centuries: they projected a joined human and dragon pure gold mag stream onto that door. Surely, that would be the key, right? Why no one else had done it?
Nope. Nothing happened.
“Oh, that’s a shame,” came a new voice neither recruits had heard before from behind them, “I would’ve hoped that could’ve finally opened that door.”
Moordryd and his inferior rival turned around to see who had snuck up behind them. It was an older Academy racer they hadn’t met yet.
“We’d already tried all other colours,” continued the new face, “even tried all the different combinations of colours we could come up with, but we’d never had the chance to try gold yet.”
“Who are you?” asked Moordryd, suspicious of the older racer, fully expecting this to turn into picking on the greenhorns.
“Oh, sorry, Calypso, Calypso Ganymedyus,” introduced the senior, “I’d heard that the Academy had somehow admitted two new students this year, and I’d gotten curious.”
“What do you want from us, then?” asked in turn the racer with an overly developed sense of justice.
“Oh, nothing really, just wanted to invite you to our movie night, this evening,” answered Calypso.
“Movie night?” wondered Moordryd.
“Yeah! We all organize a movie night in the training area each Friday. Makes for a fun way to celebrate the end of the week,” explained Calypso.
“Why the training area?” also wondered Dragon Boo-Boo.
“It’s the only place where everyone and their dragon fits,” provided Calypso, completely unaware of all the different names Moordryd was coming up with in his head to avoid directly thinking of Artha’s name... wait, he just did! Scales!
“What about the pie cannon?” continued... fine, continued Artha.
“Oh, that’s just part of the fun,” laughed Calypso, “if you catch it, then it’s free food! If it hits you, then you’ve just made everyone else laugh. Come on, give it a go! Tonight, we’re watching Drag Racer again, really underrated movie!”
In the end, the four new recruits did go to movie night. While Moordryd was already familiar with the movie being watched, he didn’t know that his nemesis also did. Since when did they have the same favourite movie, in fact? Was Penn’s taste in movies really that good?
What also surprised Moordryd was... how light the atmosphere had been. He’d been told that the rivalries within the Academy were so bitter and intense that they bordered on outright war! And yet, that night, many racers and many dragons had all gotten together to hang out and watch a movie. Everyone was having fun, and indeed, catching the pies randomly being thrown around did mean you had a pretty tasty snack to eat. However, his and the Golden Boy’s pie-covered faces kinda showed they needed a bit more practise. Still, that only lightened the spirits more. It had been... pretty fun actually.
After the movie was over and humans and dragons began heading to their quarters, Calypso made his way over to both recruits. “So, what’d you think?”
“You guys have great taste in movies, that’s for sure,” started pen but without the ink.
“Why thank you,” replied Calypso, accepting the compliment.
“Honestly... I didn’t think you guys could stay that long together without a fight starting,” confessed Moordryd.
“Actually, yeah, that was surprising,” also admitted Dragon Loser... who might not be that much of a loser the way things were going.
“Oh, yeah everyone’s surprised when they first join,” laughed Calypso, “everyone thinks the Academy is all about rivalries and triumphing over everyone else no matter what, but the truth is that we all end up spending a lot of time together, so our studies end up being a lot more enjoyable if we aren’t constantly at each other’s throats. Academy’s a lot more fun when you get along with others, you know? That, and we eventually realised that by telling each other what we knew about laser traps led to alarms going off far less often.”
“Oh yeah,” agreed Penn, “I’m sure Cayyus Pyuupous also likes not having to go stop alarms as often as well. Speaking of which, is he really the only groundskeeper in all the Academy?”
“Oh boy,” began the older Academy student, “that man might be one of the biggest mysteries in this entire place!”
“How so?” asked Moordryd.
“Well, as you said, he’s the only one taking care of the Academy. Every time something needs to be cleaned, he’s the one to do it. Every time something needs to be repaired, he’s the one to do it. He does everything in here. However, that’s just the start of it,” revealed Calypso, “he just appears out of nowhere whenever he’s needed. No one knows how he knows when he’s needed somewhere, he just gets there. No one knows how long he’s worked in the Academy either. As far back as we could ask, everyone, even the most senior professors and staff members, always say he had already been here when they first arrived.”
“And you’ve never asked him directly?” continued Moordryd.
“Oh sure,” confirmed Calypso, “but he never answers it. Just says he’s been here for a while.”
++ *time skip* ++
As worrying as that might sound, Artha realised he was getting slowly used to all the Academy’s oddities. He was getting used to catching pies while training, he was getting used to knowing when to leave the cafeteria, he was even getting good at remembering which laser traps to avoid. This morning was not one of those moments, however, as the alarm rang in his ears, practically mocking him. Thankfully, Cayyus had quickly arrive to shut it off.
“Thank you,” said, Artha.
“You’re welcome,” politely returned the mysterious groundskeeper.
Artha wanted to ask him directly, just how long he’d been here? How did he know when anything happened? Just who was he?
“And now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go find the department of floor planning improvement,” added Cayyus before Artha had a chance to ask any of those questions.
“Find?” wondered Artha at that choice of word.
“Yes,” affirmed Cayyus Pyuupous, “it has a regrettable habit of changing location each night. Unfortunately for its employees, it is rather difficult to accomplish your work when you cannot even find where your office is at the start of the day. However, on a positive note, this makes the department’s employees excellent at their job, since this daily search for the department’s location has made them incredibly knowledgeable about the Academy’s floor plan.”
As Cayyus left to indeed FIND an entire department, Artha stood still wondering why such an absurd concept didn’t baffle him as much as it should have.
It was at that moment that Moordryd made his return from where he’d gone that night. Artha had noticed that too, Moordryd snuck out of their quarters at night, and Artha had no idea what he was doing, which he did not like. The bump in Moordryd’s pockets, however, made him very suspicious.
Artha decided to follow Moordryd to the cafeteria, before confronting him.
“Moordryd, are you still stealing gear?” accused Artha, “you know that can get you expelled!”
“What? No!” denied Moordryd, “Why would you think I’m stealing gear into the Academy?”
“I don’t know, maybe to gain an unfair advantage,” supposed Artha, “anyway, what’s in your pocket then?”
“None of your business,” answered Moordryd, raising his voice a bit. Artha worried this might disturb others in the cafeteria during breakfast, but oddly, he then noticed that they, along with their dragons who were eating next to them, were alone in the cafeteria. Odd.
“You’re doing a great job at making yourself sound really suspicious right now, you know that right?” poked Artha.
“So what? I don’t owe you anything,” countered Moordryd.
“Moordryd, we live in the same apartment. I can just go through your things tonight while you’re away doing some other business,” threatened Artha.
“Fine!” succumbed Moordryd, “You want to know what’s in my pocket? There you go!”
He then threw... a Draconee-Yum bar at Artha? Huh?
“Why would you hide this from me?” asked Artha. This made no sense.
“Cause I don’t owe you anything,” repeated Moordryd. Hold on, his pocket still had a bump in it.
“Wait what else is in your pocket?” pushed Artha. He got another Draconee-Yum bar in the face. However, that bump was still present.
So he asked again, and got another Draconee-Yum bar in the face for his efforts.
“Okay first,” began Artha, more shocked than accusatory now, “why do carry so many Draconee-Yum bars in your pocket?”
“Doesn’t your dragon also like stealing your snacks?” answered Moordryd as if it were obvious.
“Oh. Right.” Indeed, Moordryd was right in that it was obvious when you thought about it. “Second, how could you fit three Draconee-Yum bars in your pocket?”
“Lots and lots of practise,” plainly answered Moordryd.
“Third, there’s still a bump in your pocket.” Welp, turns out Moordryd didn’t stop at three bars, because Artha had just received a fourth one in the face.
...
...
27. Moordryd had managed to fit 27 Draconee-Yum bars in his pocket. Artha’s face was sore from being hit so often, but at this point it didn’t matter because, well, how?!
“Lots and lots of practise,” repeated Moordryd.
Wait a minute.
“So then, why do you still have a bump in your pocket?” demanded Artha, who was ready to receive another Draconee-Yum bar to the face, and at this point would keep going until that pocket was empty.
“Fine! I did retrieve a piece of gear and brought it back,” suddenly admitted Moordryd, before gaining a wicked smile that Artha did not like. “I brought back this!”
He then pulled out a piece of neural link gear that Artha had really hoped never to see again in his life, and threw it at Artha and Beau. Before Artha had the chance to realise what was happening, the gear connected to his mind, and he finally realised why the cafeteria was empty as he gazed at the clock on the wall.
7:42 AM.
Oh no. This was not going to be fun.
Moordryd felt very smug for having tricked the Stable Brat into staying in the cafeteria long enough for the mag overload to happen. He wanted to know what Moordryd had found? Then he should be the first one to experience its effects again!
However, while Moordryd had expected the disguised Dragon of Legend and his rider to become derpy like last time, that did not seem to be what happened, since they were both giving him very, very annoyed looks. They both wacked him in the head, before the dragon went back to eating. Penn then turned to his dragon and grunted. Huh, seems it did still lead to speech loss. The dragon grunted back bluntly at Penn, before pointing his head at the clock and going back to eating. Penn then headed over to his dragon and grunted... while trying his best to imitate a dragon trying to charge up a mag attack.
Moordryd had no idea what was going on.
The Dragon apparently did, though. He brightened up, and mag-blasted Decepshun out of nowhere, who sent a blast of her own reflexively. Both kept going, until they triggered a their own mag overload.
Afterwards, annoyingly for Moordryd’s poor ears, Penn seemed to regain his speech.
“Whew, thanks for reminding me I could do that, pal,” he said, relieved.
This was starting to become a bit too much for Moordryd. “You could do that? Grunt weirdly and get your dragon to attack mine? You forgot you could do that?!”
“What? Why would you think- oh.” no. nono. Moordryd did not like the smile on Stable Brat’s face one bit. He liked it even less when the racer turned to his dragon, who now had that same insidious smile on his own head. “Our friend here still does not know what overloading this gear does.”
“It makes you dumb! That’s what happened last time!” retorted Moordryd, getting worried.
“Makes us dumb? Oh no, not at all,” oh Moon, they were approaching him with the gear now. “How about we show you what this wonderful little gadget can do when used the wrong way?”
Before Moordryd could escape, the Red and Blue dragon of legend once more mag-attacked Decepshun, who at first refused to send out another mag-stream of her own, fearing an overload, but after being thrown into the wall of the cafeteria, she found herself needing to defend herself anyway. As the mag-overload built up, Penn connected the neural gear to Moordryd and his companion.
Once the mag-overload stopped, Moordryd took in his surroundings. The neural gear had been knocked out by the blast, but his mind didn’t feel any different from before, so what did that gear do?! The other two golden brats looked the same when he looked at them, still with their annoying smiles.
Then he looked over and saw himself.
The fact that he roared, instead of screaming, only made things worse. His own body screamed back at him, and it began to dawn on him what had actually happened.
“Yep. That’s what it actually does,” revealed the sadistic prick, already knowing whose body he was in, “how’s life as a dragon, Moordryd?”
When Decepshun, who was clearly in his own body, whined at Penn, he turned over to her.
“Sorry, Decepshun, nothing against you specifically,” apologized the little vermin, “but we wanted Moordryd to discover what he’d really done to us twice now.”
Decepshun, still unhappy, ran over, trying to grab the neural gear on the floor, but his nemesis stopped her, while his dragon brought the gear under his own body. Decepshun then did something that Moordryd hoped no one would ever see his body ever do: she gave Penn pitiful drag-puppy eyes.
On one hand, it looked absolutely adorable. On the other, Moordryd’s pride and dignity would never survive.
“Look at it this way, Decepshun,” began Penn, “now he’s going to find out what it’s like being in your shoes. How many times have you wished for that in the past?”
To Moordryd’s great horror, his own companion looked pensively at him, before gaining a small smile as well.
“How about this, Moordryd, if you can’t generate a mag overload to reverse this, in one hour we’ll let the cafeteria overload do it for you,” proposed the menace of a human being. Infuriatingly, before he had the chance to do anything against him out of revenge, people began entering the cafeteria. On one hand, he could ask them for help, but on the other, if others were to learn what had just happened, he would never hear the end of it. He could not bear the humiliation! He gave Decepshun a death stare, trying to convey to her ‘you better behave!’ Unfortunately, she simply looked at him smugly.
“Hey Artha, hey Moordryd,” waved a racer they’d come to know as Pyrus.
“Hey Pyrus,” greeted Artha.
“Bwaaagle!” greeted Decepshun.
Pyrus looked at her, raising an eyebrow.
“Sorry, Moordryd’s busy eating a snack, and has forgotten that it’s bad manners to speak with your mouth full,” explained Artha while subtly sliding one of his Draconee-Yum bars over to Decepshun, who promptly ripped it open and began stuffing her face with it.
“He’s also forgotten how to eat without making a mess,” quipped Pyrus as Decepshun ate the bar so quickly but messily that she left bits of chocolate everywhere on the table.
Moordryd then wailed a cry, wanting this to end already. Why oh why did he bring back that neural gear again? What did he do to deserve this?
Just like last time, perhaps it was better if that question remained rhetorical.
Pyrus then looked over to him, confused as to why a dragon would cry like that. Moordryd gave up and just slumped onto the ground.
Once Decepshun had enough of humiliating Moordryd by making him look like a complete buffoon, through garbling and making a mess everywhere, she led Penn, his dragon and Moordryd out of the cafeteria, hopefully somewhere more quiet where they could wait for the hour to pass by. As they got out, Cayyus Pyuupous passed by them into the cafeteria.
“Oh hey Cayyus, sorry, but my friend here made a terrible mess on the table over there,” apologized his rival as he pointed towards the table at which they sat, “we tried cleaning it, but it wasn’t possible without cleaning products, we’d just spread chocolate all over.”
“Oh, don’t worry Artha, I’ve dealt with worse,” brushed off Cayyus, “It cannot be worse than the Great Flooding of the Cafeteria.”
“The Great Flooding of the Cafeteria?” wondered his nemesis.
“Yes,” replied Cayyus as he began telling his story, “a few years ago, a group of students thought it would be a great idea to plug all the sinks and water fountains in here, and then let the water run overnight. By the time morning had arrived, the entire area was flooded in a drac-metre of water, and when the doors were opened, a massive wave of water and cafeteria apparel escaped and wreaked havoc on the hallways and nearby offices and classes. The hours of cleaning, repairs and resupplying necessary because of that mess had been most unpleasant. By comparison, the minute it will take me to clean that table are mundane.”
At last, they reached their quarters, where the three accomplices, aka Penn, his dragon, along with Moordryd’s utter traitor of a companion, decided to train him into producing a mag-stream in this body.
++ *time skip* ++
Moordryd hated it. Moordryd hated the fact that he was not only getting used to trading bodies with Decepshun, but he was beginning to enjoy it. He and Penn had been taking turns playing changeling with their dragons, and it led to their abilities improving. A lot. Getting first-hand experience with knowing what things were like for their racing partner unlocked a whole new level of synergy between human and dragon, and they just kept getting better. Now that the dragons were beginning to be able to articulate their mouths as humans well enough to form a few words, they’d started playing a little game: switch bodies with your dragon, go hang out with other racers, either in the cafeteria or the training grounds or Movie Night, and see if anyone notices anything off. The more time went on, the less other racers suspected anything, and Penn and Paynn were now regularly sparring as dragons regularly.
Speaking of which, as much as he hated to admit it, sparring with Penn was... it was thrilling! Not only was he almost as good as Moordryd was (Moordryd would never admit that they were equals. Totally not in denial), but the more they sparred, the better they knew each other’s styles. They had begun knowing what the other would do even before they did it, so they’d also begun trying to outsmart each other with surprises. Moordryd LOVED it. Of course, doing it all as dragons while no one else knew what they were doing made it even more fun.
As weird as it was, they were also acclimating to the Academy itself. The pie cannon? A really fun way to spice up a spar, while also serving as a delicious post-training reward. The mag overload in the cafeteria? A great way to try to seamlessly switch between being a human and a dragon, and acting as if nothing had changed. The laser traps? There was nothing more hilarious than a student more senior than them stepping into one that they knew would set off an alarm.
“Hey, Penn,” started Moordryd one morning, “we should try to get Cayyus to trigger a laser alarm.”
“He’d never fall for it,” replied Moordryd’s rival, “he knows this place too well.”
“But if we distract him,” proposed Moordryd, “we could make him walk into one without realising.”
“You think you could distract him that much?” doubted his roommate.
“Both of us together could,” pushed Moordryd, “both of us having him occupied in conversation.”
“You know what? Sure, let’s try it,” finally accepted Penn.
Finding him was easy. Spill a bit of soda on a table in the cafeteria, and he quickly showed up. How to get him lost in a conversation was another matter entirely, but they had a plan.
“Hey Cayyus,” began the hero of legend, “what’s the most extravagant thing a student has done in your time in this Academy?”
If they could get him lost in memory, telling a story, that could work, right?
“The most extravagant?” wondered the groundskeeper, “I think... I think none can beat the achievements of Dayoneesys. From his entry to his graduation, that racer kept annoying the Administration. In his first year, he hacked every intercom in the building so that, whenever an announcement was made, the voice sounded like the person had taken helium. I of course had to revert them back to their normal setting. I still find some helium intercoms occasionally, when returning to seldom-visited areas.”
“Oh, that’s funny,” remarked Moordryd, while trying to avoid Cayyus realising he was being led somewhere “what else did he pull off?”
“The following year,” continued Cayyus, getting deeper into memory while Moordryd and his accomplice smiled at each other, their plan working up to now, “he managed to flip a few classrooms upside-down. All the furniture had been glued to the ceiling. The most remarkable part was him getting the floor tiles up there too, while getting all the ceiling tiles and lights down on the ground, while keeping those lights still functional. When it came time for me to undo those pranks, I’d found he’d somehow redone all the wiring inside the walls, floors and ceilings to achieve this, which took several days to return to their original state.” Although Cayyus sounded annoyed, Moordryd couldn’t help but notice the smile at the corner of the man’s mouth. “Frustratingly, those wires had needed to be modernized anyway, but the Administration denied my request to seize that opportunity while I was at it. In the end, I ended up having to rework those wires twice in the span of a year, when I could have just done it once.”
“The following year, he stepped up his game again” continued Cayyus, now deep in memory, “he got not only the department of floor planning improvement, but every department to change location during the same night. Safe to say, the employees of floor planning improvement were never as appreciated as they were on that day. They played a key role in helping everyone find the new location of their department.”
While Cayyus went on, telling Artha and Moordryd about Dayoneesys’ pranks each year, they had managed to lead him to a working laser trap. However, while Cayyus reflexively stopped in front of it to avoid triggering an alarm, even this deep in his stories, Artha and Moordryd had become too enraptured in Dayoneesys’ adventures to notice, and walked right into it, only realising their blunder when the alarm began laughing at their misfortune.
“However, what I appreciate about Dayoneesys is that he understood how vital the Academy’s paperwork is to its operations, and thus never touched it,” continued the groundskeeper as he stopped the alarms, acting as if nothing had happened and wasn’t aware of what the two latest recruits had attempted, though the sprinkle in his eyes told otherwise.
++ *time skip* ++
“Hey, Artha,” called Moordryd to his roommate as he arrived one morning, “tonight, don’t go to bed early.”
“Why not?” asked his training partner.
“I’ve found something in Down City,” announced Moordryd, “I’d like to show it to you.”
Artha wondered what his Psy class booster counterpart had found. He’d long since learned to trust Moordryd to not engage in any suspicious business at night (outside of packing dozens Draconee-Yum bars in one pocket. That would always be suspicious), so for him to say he’d found something, and that he wanted to show it to Artha? It was bound to be interesting.
That evening, Artha followed Moordryd outside the Academy, down into Work Town, then Precinct, Shadow Town, and finally Down City. He kept following as Moordryd navigated from street to street, before going up a staircase next to a building and onto a terrace in front of a noodle stall. Artha thought that this stall would be Moordryd’s find, and while they did indeed stop to grab a bowl of noodles from the lovely old lady running it, he then directed Artha to look at a plaza down below the terrace. The plaza didn’t seem remarkable; it was surrounded by buildings, stalls and streets, like any other part of Down City.
“Why are you making me look there?” asked Artha to his roommate.
“Wait,” replied Moordryd, looking at his watch, “wait just another minute.”
They sat, eating their noodles, Artha wondering what was about to happen.
At first he didn’t notice anything, but some synthesizers had begun playing somewhere down below, and were rising in volume. A man fizzed into existence out of nowhere and walked into the centre of the plaza. A beat began, almost like a heartbeat.
“three, two, one” he then heard, before the song properly began.
“Bah, bah-ooh, bah, bah. Bah, bah, bah-ooh,” went the man as he began dancing to the beat, and lights began highlighting him in different colours.
“Sometimes, I just can't take it
Sometimes, I just can't take it and it isn't alright
I'm not gonna make it
And I think my shoe's untied”
This was... Artha was witnessing a musical performance. But... how? Why was this happening?
“I'm like a broken record
I'm like a broken record and I'm not playing right
Drocer nekorb a ekil m'I
Till you tell me on the heavenly phone”
And now, the singer was moving forwards and backwards while singing these lyrics, as if he really were stuck repeating himself. He then began singing and dancing normally again, until he reached the chorus, when a troupe of odd-looking dancers also fizzled in, joining in the performance.
Artha looked next to him, and Moordryd was completely enraptured by what they were seeing. Was he not also confused by why any of this was happening?
“You’re thinking too much, Artha,” poked Moordryd when he looked over at Artha, knowing which questions were in his head even without them being vocalized. “Stop wondering about how any of this is happening. What does it make you feel right now?”
What did it make him feel?
“Look beyond the weirdness of it all,” continued Moordryd, “just let yourself be taken along for the ride. How does it feel?”
“Cause you've got a higher power
Got me singin' every sеcond, dancin' every hour
Oh, yeah, you'vе got a higher power
And you're really someone I wanna know” went the singer when they reached the chorus once more.
Artha felt... like in this moment, nothing else mattered. Like the world itself had stopped, and he finally had time to take a breath. Down City was an odd place; 2000 year old buildings that border on ruins, repaired with scraps that people could get their hands on, sprinkled with neon signs from every small business around, run by people trying to earn a living. At first, it felt disjointed, but in that instant? It just made sense. All these elements blended together, even this song that popped up out of nowhere, it all just worked, and he was captivated.
“Like I’ve finally stopped racing as fast as possible, and finally decided to take in the sights, like this is the first time I’ve had the chance to realise how beautiful this all is,” Artha then confessed.
“I know right?” agreed his roommate, “and it feels like a breath of fresh air.”
“But still, why would you want to show me this?” asked Artha.
“Well, there are two reasons,” answered Moordryd, “firstly, I simply wanted to share this with you. I didn’t like being the only one knowing about this, and thought you’d like to see it. Secondly, that feeling you have right now, apply it elsewhere in life.”
Elsewhere? What did he mean elsewhere?
“I’d been thinking about the Academy,” revealed Moordryd, “I kept being bothered by, the more time we spent there, the less everything felt odd and the more we just went along with it. This right here, this right here made me understand.”
It was strange indeed, that they were getting used to the Academy’s oddities, wasn’t it? Nothing made any sense, so why did it feel like it didn’t matter?
Well, actually, that was the answer, wasn’t it? It didn’t matter whether it made sense or not. What mattered was the impact on them, and at this point? Artha enjoyed them. They gave the Academy character, almost a soul. Artha had never thought walking in hallways would have become an interesting activity, but those laser traps had made those walks entertaining, even fun. Artha tried to imagine the Academy if it were a normal institution, without any of its quirks. It would be... boring, really. It would be dull, lifeless.
Add to that the possibility of all the students being at each other’s throats, as they were known to be on track? No hanging out together, no movies, no joking around... it would make his stay at the Academy worse honestly, nothing to do besides train like a warrior and fight against others sounded so much more dreary now. At least, said training would still be interesting, right?
But then, what if he were doing it without... Moordryd, by his side? None of the games they played together, just a bitter rivalry... at this point, it genuinely sounded miserable.
Artha was glad, then. He was glad for all of this. The Academy, the other students, even Moordryd. Whether Artha admitted it or not, being roommates with Moordryd had really made things more fun. Moordryd was devious, sure, but Artha enjoyed it at this point. It gave life some spice, and it made Artha want to spend more time with his friend.
They were friends now, right?
“I feel like... like you’ve got a higher power, even,” confessed Artha.
“And you’re someone I wanna know,” completed Moordryd, smiling as Artha finally understood the true reason why Moordryd had brought him here.
He was glad they were roommates.
++ *time skip* ++
There was a revelation on the news. A new species of animal had been discovered in Dragon City. They were called drag-pigeons. They were small winged animals, kind of like drag-crows, though they were nowhere near as insidious as those. Interestingly, they had this tendency to bob their head forwards while walking, like a certain groundskeeper in the Academy, Artha noticed.
That being said, how were they only discovered now? Where did they come from? How were they not discovered sooner? Were they hiding?
While Artha was wondering about this, elsewhere in the halls of the Academy, the exact drag-pigeon shown in the news walked towards a certain door, a door that had never been opened by any human being, one adorned with golden effigies of drag-pigeons. When the little animal reached it, the door opened on its own, letting it in. Inside were many other such animals, all either lying on tiny hammocks, or on the edges of tiny baths. Some were on a stage, singing together, while others were savouring luxurious amounts of the finest bread crumbs one could find. This drag-pigeon had wondered what the world outside of their paradise was like, but now, having returned? Their home was nicer. No worries, no hurries, just a comfortable life to enjoy.
And so, the mysterious door closed once more, not to open until the next drag-pigeon gets curious once more.