Chapter Twenty : The Dragonfirre Riders or Bringing It To The Red Menace

Well after a few chills and thrills we managed to convince the Red Menace units that had been trying to close us in a net but of course they had failed yet again due to some creative use of magic as well as technology. I will admit I was glad that Alex the Blade or The Associate as he would like to be known had emerged from the Stone of Tongues and thankfully his Iron Will had enabled him to prevail within the Realm within the Stone against the dark liquid evil being manipulated by the Immortal known as Miracle Mike. Sadly the darkness had already overwhelmed almost the entire Realm within the Stone save for the grove and the tree house in addition to having gained influence over Dirty Anna, Lucky Ron, Clean Eugene and even Mickey the Torch. I am starting to use their alias’s more but it is all part of my plan to build the name of my own alias Beauty the Brain and Dragonfirre. I already have our Dragonfirre symbol ready and I plan to soon start leaving it behind to allow our enemies to be aware of when they have crossed our path. We did need to begin diplomatic negotiations with Miracle Mike since he needed us to locate and free his daughter from the clutches of the Red Menace. Looking back it was no doubt to difficult to have started off with that approach but I suppose by holding back he now was able to negotiate from a stronger position. In truth in the long run while he was for sure an evil scum sucking fiend he might very well prove to be useful against the Dreaming God. Well since we once again needed to put our own plans to acquire the Wish Projector again on hold I deduced our only viable lead was to attempt to infiltrate the Providence Red Menace Cell and since my sexy thrall Anita the Red Menace Fem Agent knew exactly where it was located we were already one step ahead. The plan was simple enough the Associate would assume the guise of a Red Menace Agent affiliated with the floating section dispatched to assist and check on the status of their captive. I in the meantime would be controlling my thrall and using her senses while the other members of Dragonfirre waited in new disguises within one hundred feet and Slick Rick my wild card would stand ready to bring the fury of the elements to bear if need be. I was I thought a quite clever plan which stood a high chance of success but thanks to a warning device set by a member of the Red Menace known as the Thousand Eye Wizard the Associate was discovered but I get ahead of myself and so as to clear up the picture I will fill in the canvas of another Dragonfirre masterpiece.

We were going to be quickly in for some excitement that much I could tell. Slick Rick had flown off from the blackened field leaving me to deal with my dark liquid infected members of Dragonfirre. So in addition to being surrounded on all four sides by around twelve Red Menace patrol cars Dirty Anna, Mickey the Torch and my two thralls Clean Eugene and Lucky Ron were at my side and acting strange. I had just broken up a fight between Mickey and Lucky and I had just woken up Mickey and managed to sell him on the idea that he had won the battle and that we were now being surrounded by Red Menace and needed to get moving to the North and Providence Field where Slick Rick was waiting for us. So we had started on foot toward the North while I began to wonder just what the Red Menace would pull from out other magic hats next. I did not have to wait long for when they were still around five hundred feet out and closing they fired multiple rockets that hurled toward us. I at first thought they were firing explosives but they were choosing to be more canny Dirty Nialla managed to take down two of the rockets but a few still landed around us and exploded and filled the area with gas. For the most part we were unscathed well with the exception of Clean Eugene who stumbled and fell and looked for all intentions to be dead. I was using my telepathy and message spell to keep everyone in contact so I was not surprised when Scrounger used the magical scroll cast neutralize poison which awoke Clean Eugene and the pursuit as they say was on. Next in the bag of tricks was a barrier of magic that for all intents and purposes entrapped us. Well I should be clear entrapped everyone else since I actually had several ways to escape the sphere of magic but I was not planning on leaving any of the others behind after all Slick Rick had left and had instructed me to take care of it and I was not going to let my Druid companion down. So after examining the wall I focused my will and cast shadow conjured a regal procession or in other words I instantly summoned ten ivory light horses which arrived with bit and bridle, riding saddles, saddle blankets, and adornments that included the Dragonfirre symbol. I at first set them against the barrier in a focused charge but they were unable to pierce the barrier. I had not need to worry for Lucky Ron whose luck seemed to have been refilled struck at the barrier and it fell before his flashing katana. I called to the others to mount up and ride and we were transformed into the Dragonfirre Riders. I realized that our mounts were unknown to the people of Emerald but in truth we were in a field and they were in cars and in truth we now had to advantage of speed but I of course waited to see if they had any more tricks up their sleeve. The Red Menace it seems never disappoints for as a few cars closed on us machine guns blazing they managed to unhorse Mickey the Torch but since we had extra mounts which were under my control we were barely slowed as I rode near him and he vaulted into the saddle of one of my spares. Dirty Anna had been flying and as we started to kick up the speed of our ride she flew down and landed on mount being ridden by Clean Eugene. Lucky Ron meanwhile was not being idle during the ride and had manage to pull aim and fire all while on horseback his law rocket into the Red Menace who were in our way blowing them to bits. So far things were going well at least that was until the most strange thing that had up until now ever happened to me my mind was clouded and suddenly as I rode I lost track of where we were and why I was suddenly riding surrounded my people I knew. To be honest it was quite bewildering for someone of my intellect to suddenly not know what was going on and were I a lesser woman I am sure I might have panicked. As it was I was able to tell that we had managed to finally out distance our Red Menace escort and they broke off pursuit once we had entered Providence Field proper it seemed there were limits to the reach of the Red Menace which was exactly the kind of information I had been looking for and by my count this was Dragonfirre three and Red Menace zero which is exactly how I wanted to keep it.

We had rode up to the Organization’s hideout and Slick Rick and my Associate and reluctant lover Alex the Blade were waiting to find for us. I was actually still quite out of it and I could see that my lover Dirty Anna was concerned about my welfare and my mental faculties. I realized that my mind was out of sorts and thankfully I still realized who my friends were if not exactly where we were and as I soon as I had laid eyes on Slick Rick I knew my salvation was at hand. I spoke with him and he advised that I dismiss the Dragonfirre steeds since they might draw unwanted attention while Lucky Ron had suggest that I have them ride off in a different direction I figured I could always call them back if needed and dismissed them. Thankfully Slick Rick’s spell was able to snap me out of the daze that had been placed upon me. I quickly brought him telepathically up to speed with how the internal conflict as well as the external conflict with the Red Menace had been resolved and how I had acquired reluctantly yet another thrall in Lucky Ron. I of course had given Lucky Ron complete free will as I was also doing with Clean Eugene but I was now more hesitant about completely releasing them in case or new ally of sorts Miracle Mike had other plans for them since he somehow had gained with the help of his two evil artifacts the ability to manipulate them. I then proceeded to check on Mongo he was here as well instead of Fluky Luke. Upon further questioning of Mongo at the request of Alex the Blade who had told me that he did not seem to be himself. Well I would have thought that would have been obvious since he had been held captive by the Red Menace and only the Gods knew what dark magic or mad science he had been subjected to before being dropped of here as he had already stated. So while I spoke with him and even used my Fey charm on him and while I felt I had him charmed it did not really seem like him I also distracted myself with checking the radio to see if there was any information about our exploits on the local news. As I was coming to expect there was indeed information about our exploits on the radio. Slick Rick and Alex the Blade had told me they thought they had heard noises outside and to be honest it had sounded like a planed to me. Which ironically was proven when the report was relayed about the University Police dealing with an explosion at graduate library as well as the spotting of a pack of wild animals near the Patch district. There was even information about a patrol plane being sent to the area to examine the sighting. I felt content that we had made a clean getaway as the saying goes and started to read the note left behind by Fluky Luke to Lefty found by Mongo which told of how he was heading to Ugly City in West Providence. I was getting concerned about Smiling Ed, Lefty and Louie the Lip since Mongo had agreed with me that they should have arrived by now. I had a feeling that logically they might have left to a new location if they had been aware that Mongo might be heading back here or if they were unsure of our status. I therefore had thought heading to Ugly City to check might not be a bad idea. Well it seemed that the daze had had more of an effect than I had thought for it took Lucky Ron to remind me that both he and Mickey the Torch were in danger of losing their man parts which were perhaps my favorite part of the male anatomy.

Alright so my priorities quickly changed and Lucky Ron even made light of it as he had noticed that once I had been reminded of the possible harm coming to Mickey the Torch I had seemed more determined to find an answer to their dilemma. I first off related to both Lucky Ron and Mickey the Torch that I would devote the full power of my intellect and charm to the problem and I would start with finding a compromise with Miracle Mike. I first tried by focusing my telepathic gifts on the Stone of Tongues and I did not sense a response and then I remember that Slick Rick had said that Miracle Mike said he really liked my beloved Dirty Anna and to be honest while I expected her to try break their connection I almost suggested she just try and consume him and honestly if I did not think that might cause her to walk down a dark path which would be too hard for her to ever walk away from I would have. Which caused me to realize that Miracle Mike might very well be inside Dirty Anna and if so I could reach his mind telepathically. I reached the mind of Miracle Mike and I could tell that he was someone who felt he was the most important being on the planet well sadly he was of course mistaken for in truth I was but I have the patience to let others live with their own delusions of grandeur. I of course had begun our dialogue with a statement meant to lure him into my confidence “You know Mike I would have been more than willing to have helped rescue you daughter from the Red Menace if you had only started off with that instead of all that posturing which has lead us to our current situation.” He had responded “Well you know what they say about hindsight.”. I of course had countered with “And well of course you might have very well been trying to put yourself in this very situation so that you might have a better hand than the one you had been dealt.”. After a little more banter where I made sure he realized that in truth he had not acquired what he wanted since I was not called Beauty the Brain for nothing and while he might have acquired influence over a few of our members and our Stone of Tongues I was not above losing the Stone of Tongues and every member of Dragonfirre if necessary before I would let myself be manipulated for I had bigger fish to fry then him. I even dangled my connection with the Organization of Swami Donnie and while I did not really want to I had to make sure he believed my bluff and when he confirmed that he felt the only gang worth anything was Swami Donnie’s crew I knew I had him where I wanted him. My Mother had always told me to never begin negotiations with you adversary having the upper hand and while in truth the loss of Dirty Anna and Mickey the Torch would tear my heart apart I could not let that knowledge be known to Miracle Mike. So using the guise that the deal he had made with Slick Rick was a bit stiff and too shrivel the man parts of my companions was a little harsh and since I was now on the case he needed to relax with the threats. He agreed that it had been more of a threat and he had no desire to unman them and I let him know that such useless threats were no longer necessary and to be honest I was more than willing to rescue his daughter and then we would continue negotiations regarding the liberation of the Stone of Tongues the inhabitants and Dirty Anna. I was interesting and useful that while we had been talking I had mentioned Mongo who would be aiding us as a red herring which he bit and gave me the information that I had been looking for. It seemed that Mongo was being mentally being ridden by a young Yith or in other words a member of the Great Race. Of course that was not all for it seemed that Mongo had also been subjected to experiments to cause him to transform into one of the zombie warriors we had faced at the University and perhaps the only thing keeping him even slightly alive was the Yith. Well the Lamp had said that anyone we meet could be a member of the Great Race yet another casualty of the Dreaming God while I did not now have the time to deal with the issue now and since they were being held captive by the Red Menace, Starlords and even the Mind Emperor of the Ghouls I might have found yet another ally. For the moment Miracle Mike had been just a little too excited about our ally Swami Donnie and reminded myself that I need to make sure that we did not let them get close together until I had found out more about the power of Swami Donnie or the limitations of Miracle Mike. As I emerged from my contact with Miracle Mike I informed the others verbally using my message spell of what I had learned with the exception of the Yith issue and telepathically to Dirty Anna and Slick Rick everything I had learned about the situation. Dirty Anna surprised me by telling me that she had been aware of the Yith presence and confirmed that is was a young member of the race and while it was nice to see that Dirty Anna was not being idle I reminded her that if she became aware of any other Yith in our presence for her to let me know sooner than later if at all possible. Alright I was a little mad but truly if you have ever seen body and the charm that literally oozes off of Dirty Anna you would understand that it’s not only her methods that work with her name but the thoughts of those around her when they look at her. I also realized that I would need to talk to Miracle Mike more about specifics as well as communicate with Smiling Ed about our situation and remind Dirty Anna who seemed to be trying to cast the seeming spell which would cause a mass disguise spell to be cast on everyone that I had that spell and she should keep the spell on the scroll. I also had to make the time telepathically have a conversation with Alex the Blade regarding the state of our three members of Dragonfirre who were still compromised. I had started my conversation with Alex the Blade and obviously I was not moving fast enough for Lucky Ron who proceeded to enter the Stone of Tongues for a his own conversation with Miracle Mike. My conversation with Alex the Blade was actually quite dark for while I had only wanted to bring him up to speed when I had mentioned that certain members of our team had been compromised his first response had been to ask me which one was he to take out first. Well it seemed to me that Alex the Blade was allowing the darkness of the Plane of Shadow to influence him and I was sure the repression of his feelings for me were not helping the matter and then add that top of the fact the every member of our team had different philosophies which rubbed him the wrong way he was like a dam ready to bust. So I assured him that I was working on the situation and I just wanted him to be aware that Lucky Ron, Mickey the Torch, Dirty Anna and to even a lesser extent Clean Eugene had been infected by artifacts in the possession of currently disembodied Miracle Mike and they all might now possess intensified tempers that could lead to violence at any moment. I basically asked him for me to be aware that things they might say now to try and get a reaction from him might not be entirely within their control and I informed him of the battle between Lucky Ron and Mickey the Torch which had lead to me placing a dominate spell upon Lucky Ron. Thankfully he agreed for the last thing I needed was for Alex the Blade to start something which might cause me to react which would no doubt end up with his death. Yeah I know would I really kill my beloved Alex well to be honest if it came down to it I would sacrifice anyone if they stood between me and my ambition and sure I would mourn his passing even more than any other member of Dragonfirre but I would not allow the egos of the others to prevent me from making sure the Dreaming God paid for the crimes he had committed upon Hyboria.

I had spent too long with Alex and Lucky Ron had been in there far too long and so I mentally contacted Miracle Mike thru his connection with Dirty Anna. While he at first seemed to content to have Lucky Ron relate to me the details of their conversation I reminded him while Lucky might be the current front man and face of Dragonfirre I was truly the brains behind the outfit and if I failed to acquire any of the information he was not doubt even now sharing with Lucky Ron and his daughter died because of it to remember it would be his fault and I would expect the deal to have been completed. He of course relented when I had put it that way and so while I paid attention to what he was relating I also composed a message for my sending spell to Smiling Ed. I knew he would be able to respond so I left the message open ended enough for him to gather the gist of our situation. So after ten minutes during which Lucky Ron was still talking with Miracle Mike I sent the following message “Smiling. Where are you is everything ok with you and who is with you? Mongo is here and does not seem well. You can respond.” Smiling Ed responded with the following “They had been delayed by the police and Lefty, Louie the Lip and Hawkeye Allen were with him in North Point City not Ugly City.” So with it being confirmed that they were safe I turned my attention fully back to the task at hand. Thanks to Lucky Ron we had learned that Miracle Mike’s daughter was a forty six year old black haired woman who was chunky and wore her hair short cropped and was fond of leather. The funny thing was that she seemed to be part of a female group named the Clown Girls who were in reality a Garbage tribute band. It seems she had also been missing for around a week and a half and had been nabbed from a friend of hers named Natalie abode. Well that made things a little easier for I knew exactly where to find the hideout of the Red Menace team that had been involved in the whole affair. All I needed was the release of our mutual plaything Anita my Red Menace thrall from within the Stone of Tongues which Miracle Mike seemed to be saddened about and who could blame him really the Fem Agents were athletic and hot and to be honest it was really starting to get on my nerve because I had realized that later on tonight I would be denied not only the comfort of Dirty Anna, Clean Eugene, Anita my Fem Agent, and even the chance of Mickey the Torch. I was even thinking of having my way with Lucky Ron and I already knew how Alex the Blade would respond and while I respected Slick Rick and while I had hoped he would have made a pass at be by now I could only dream. Dam the Miracle Mike to Hades for infecting my friends and thralls for now he was starting to mess with my needs and desires. I focused on putting those thought aside and my plan began to take shape I gathered more information about the local Red Menace headquarters. It seemed there base of operations was disguised as a newspaper distribution center within the Sea Breeze office building. It also seemed that the layout of the building even had a convenient place for us to hang out since a restaurant called Goes was in the building as well and several offices opened right into it including the Red Menace headquarters. I also had Anita give me a lesson on the ranks and styles of dress of the various Red Menace operatives and their duties and I found out that there was a division named the floating section that fit my plan for The Associate perfectly. My plan was for us to wait in the restaurant while The Associate posing as a member of the Red Menace Floating Section confronted a masked Coordinator from whom he would gather information on the location of Amy. I of course would be using my ability to ride the thoughts and experiences of my thrall Anita as well as my telepathy to keep an eye on the situation in case we needed to make a sudden move or in case The Associates cover was blown and we were needed to come to the rescue of Alex the Blade. I asked Slick Rick to remain outside the building in case we needed to bring the power of the elements to bear and thankfully he seemed happy with the plan. So after casting a clothiers closet spell I created a number of various Red Menace outfits and after collecting a Fem Agent outfit for myself and one for The Associate I asked Mickey the Torch if he could carry the outfits for the other members of Dragonfirre. So yes I had created a number of extra outfits for the others since you never know when you might need to infiltrate a Red Menace operation. I hoped if we kept handing it to the Red Menace they would perhaps get a clue that if they kept interfering with our operations than we were going to start interfering with theirs. So with The Associate and Anita prepared with the cover story of being rescued and The Associates set with a cover to find out the whereabouts of the Amy in order to keep her safe since they had been infiltrated which ironically would be true of course we broke into our separate groups so that we would arrive at the restaurant in separate groups and at different times within an hour of each other. I had Mongo secure a few cars and informed Mongo he was to stay with the cars as a lookout. So Lucky Ron and I arrived first at the Sea Breeze and followed by Dirty Anna and Clean Eugene and followed up by Mickey the Torch and of course it went without saying that I had once again created impeccable disguised for everyone. I had passed out a thousand ($1000.00) in cash to Clean Eugene and Mickey the Torch just in case we were separated and so they have money on hand in case anything happened as well as to pay for their own meal. I should note Goes Restaurant was located on the twelfth floor of the building and it was simply beautiful and the restaurant was a buffet which was perhaps one of the most amazing things I had ever seen it only cost two dollars ($2.00) per person to dine on an entire array of foods and while the only thing missing was real meat I had been a vegetarian for my youth and even their created meat products were quite tasty. I of course made sure to acquire extra food for Lucky Ron and myself while I made sure to set some aside and wrapped for later on since while I realized we still had the tree house I did not really trust it. In a short while it was time for the action to begin as Anita and The Associate arrived and entered the restaurant and crossed up a set of stairs on their way past two doors and finally into the Providence Red Menace headquarters. I of described telepathically everything I saw from Anita’s perspective while The Associate did the same via the message spell. It was ironic for of the group that had ambushed us twenty were here and with the exception of the Kings and were lounging around licking their wounds. They seemed surprised and happy to see Anita and she gave them the cover story that she had been rescued by a member of the floating section who needed to speak with the Coordinator. The Associate was playing his role perfectly and I for a moment felt that this might be even easier than I had thought. Well that was until we suddenly seemed to lose contact with The Associate for while asking him what he was seeing and he had been describing a weapons rack and even a crown sitting on a chair that was blinking and that was the last thing we had heard. I asked Anita for clarification and she informed that The Associate’s had glazed over and he was walking toward the crown and proceeding to punch a button on it before I could instruct Anita to stop him. The next moment an image of the Thousand Eye Wizard appeared and told the entire room “This is biggest security breech I have ever seen.”. The image than pointed at The Associate and declared “Right There Get Him!” at which point I informed the others that were up and that Alex the Blades cover had been blown. Dirty Anna had figured that I was going to teleport us into the room and an informed me that when I informed her that was never part of the plan she seemed upset and even told me she would have never agreed to the plan if she thought we were going to have to move to Alex. I informed her to relax since Slick Rick was above their room already and with Alex the Blade coming to us and with no Kings present this would be a cakewalk. Alex the Blade started taking fire and I instructed Anita to fire on any of the operatives in the room that were not her friends. Alex meanwhile ghost stepped and vanished into shadows and made it to the door at right about the same time we made it to the first door. We were unable to hear anything and Dirty Anna summoned her power and unleashed a dispelling effect that not only broke the shield they had erected within the room but also my own spell on my thrall as well which set me on fire for a moment. Once again all I can say is that Dirty Anna is really lucky that I love her otherwise her rash actions would really start to get on my nerve. I was still concentrate and cast the haste spell on everyone since Alex had made it back in range of us while Mickey the Torch unleashed his namesake dragon breath into the room. Which might have been bad enough in not in the very next moment could be heard the laughter of Slick Rick as he collapsed the entire roof above them right on top of them Red Menace trapping and stunning all of them under tons of rock and glass.

Well alright then I confirmed that Alex the Blade had escaped the elemental onslaught unscathed and I realized that now we would just have to get the information we sought the old fashioned way which in truth was fine by me for not even a few hours ago these very same Red Menace agents had been trying to kill us and Slick Rick had just delivered then retribution and from the looks of it they did not seem to like which was fine by me and since I could see a few of them moving around I figured they would now be in a much better mood to answer our questions. Next up would be the rescue of Amy the forty six year old brat of Miracle Mike and then would begin the difficult negotiations to keep Miracle Mike as an ally find him a new body purge him from the Stone of Tongues restore the Realm within the Stone and contact the Fey and summon them back to the Realm. Well Mother always said there would be days like this and for the love of Aphrodite she was right but I swear by all the Gods Beauty the Brain and Dragonfirre will prevail.