Chap. 7: Not Over Yet
Cat leaned back and stretched her arms behind her head. Her muscles were sore and the wrestler had been heavy. Cat rubbed her one of her shoulders because it was stiff, and yawned when one of her sensitive ears picked up something slight. It was a very light sound. She turned around and examined the throne room again as the rest of the group were leaving. The bones were still where the were. So what made that sound? As Cat turned to leave, she head the sound again. It was slight and subtle, like the walking of a wasp on a window, only longer this time. It was the sound of silk being dragged over jade.

"Uh guys," said Cat. "Where did the bones go?"

"Aiiiiihhhhhh," screamed Jinn. Cat turned to see the Ming's bones hanging in mid-air like some grotesque marionette. "Get away from her!" shouted Jazz. The blast threw Ming back across the great hall. The bones rose into the air again and dove after the girls. Lydia shaped one of her hands into a long flat paddle, and slapped Ming into the wall. Tam let fly with a double handful of his white "marbles", sending the skeleton skittering across the lacquered floor. Ming almost made it to the door when Jazz cut her off with another of her sonic blasts. The skeleton raised up and hissed, and then unleashed a fury of cyan energy at Jazz and Tam.

Josie bamphed in behind Ming and latched onto the skeleton's leg. Ming turned around and fired an energy bolt straight into Josie's cleavage, knocking her to the ground. "Ouch," Josie muttered. Ming stood up, cyan energy trailing from her hands, and readied another blast. "DYING SUN ARROW!!" The blast from the Black Arrow's bolt threw Ming back into the middle of the great hall before she could blast Josie.

Jinn had had enough of sitting on the sidelines. She concentrated her ebon energy into her hand and shaped it into a thin disk. Jinn then drew her arm back and threw the energy for all that she was worth. The energy disk sailed towards Ming so quickly, the skeleton couldn't avoid it. Ming screamed as the disk shattered her bones causing them to crumble into a pile.

"Nice work little sister," complemented Tam.

There came a rattle from the bones, Didi turned to see Ming's skull rise up from the pile of bones. "Do you think that is all it takes to defeat me?" shrieked the skull. "If you think that, then you have another thing coming. Feel the fury of my Red Fire Dragon." Cyan energy erupted from the skull's empty eye sockets, and shot straight into the eyes of the great red dragon carved into the arch leading into Ming's throne room.

"I think we better leave," said Lydia.

"I agree," said Tam. "We've seen enough of this sort of thing for one day." The Bra Busters charged towards the egress of Ming's palace as the great wooden dragon began to creak and groan as it came to life. Tam unleashed a furious blast of energy at the dragon's head, followed by one of the Black Arrow's Rune Flare Arrows.

As the girls made a run for the courtyard gates, Jinn stopped. "Has anyone seen my brother?" she cried. An explosion of white energy came from the palace. "Never mind," said Jinn.

Tam bolted from the palace doors with The Black Arrow hot on his heels. As they caught up to the girls Didi asked, "Well, did you beat her?" The great palace collapsed in on itself, as the head of the great red dragon erupted through the roof, belching forth a raging inferno. The heat from the blast was so great that is scorched Didi's hair.

"No," said Tam nonchalantly, and shaking his head.

The dragon launched itself into the air, as the palace tower collapsed to the ground. The ground shook as the red beast landed on its hind feet. The dragon swung its head around to orient on the girls, it's eyes flashing like the rising sun. It opened its maw sending a fiery orb hurtling towards the girls.

With lightning speed Jazz concentrated her sonic scream into a tight burst and disrupted the fireball, causing flames to shower down onto the courtyard. The dragon slung its head forward and directed a wide stream of flame towards the Bra Busters. This time Tam and Jinn came to the rescue. With a wide sweeping motion, the mystical twins created a pearl gray colored shield that channeled the fire away from them.

Now it was Josie's turn to go into action. The black bra'ed beauty appeared at the left side of the dragon's head, and slammed her elbow into the beast's lower jaw. Josie then vanished and reappeared on top of the dragon's head, and brought down her joined fists onto the dragons thick skull, forcing the beast to lower its muzzle. Josie then reappeared just below the dragon's chin and launched a kick that caused the dragon's head to snap back violently, and crash into the burning remains of the palace.

The dragon roared, as it thrashed in the incinerating debris. It rolled itself to its feet and aimed its next attack at Josie. As the dragon launched another blast of fire at the teleporter, Josie strobe-ported away, and headed around the corner of the collapsed palace. The dragon followed Josie at a swift gallop, and chased her around the corner. As the dragon followed Josie around the next corner, instead of Josie, it found Jazz waiting for the beast to appear. Jazz let loose with a devastating barrage of sonic blasts, that struck the dragon about the head, chest, and shoulders. The great red beast raised up on its hindquarters and shielded its face with its forepaws. It wasn't ready to have one of its hind feet knocked out from under it by Cat. After toppling over onto its side, the dragon rolled over onto its four feet and lashed out at Cat with it's tail. Cat jumped out of the way as the dragon's tail fin sliced cleanly through the stone and mortar of the parapet wall, that fin was lethally sharp. Cat quickly got to her feet, and pulled one of the stones loosened by the dragon's tail out of the wall. Cat raised it in front of her just in time to block another stream of flame away from herself.

"This stone is getting hot," she thought to herself, as sweat dripped down her temple. "I can't hold onto it much longer." The dragon continued its blast of flame at the stone Cat was shielding herself with.

"C'mon you stupid lizard," shouted Cat. "You have to breathe some time." Then as if on cue, the dragon ceased its deluge of flame and inhaled sharply. Quickly, before the dragon could fire again, Cat chucked the rock shot-put style straight into the dragon's mouth. The stone, softened by the heat of the dragon's flame, and lodged in the beast's maw, and refused to come loose. The dragon lumbered over to the parapet wall and swung its head into the wall, trying to dislodge the rock. The beast succeeded on its third try; shattering the stone, part of the wall, and several of the dragons own teeth. As the dragon moaned in pain, Lydia swung two thousand pounds of reptilian tail into the dragon's abdomen, causing the red beast to exhale sharply and double over.

As the dragon tried to recover from this latest attack, Lydia snaked the tail of her new Plateosaur form out from under the dragon, and brought it crashing down upon the beast's back. As Lydia readied her tail for another strike, the dragon suddenly clamped its jaws around her foot, causing her to trip. Lydia let out a saurian groan as the pain in her leg assaulted her brain, informing her of a now sprained, if not broken, ankle. As the dragon tried to paw its way up to attack Lydia's vitals, several bursts of ebon energy struck the great red beast in the face, driving it back into a corner of the parapet wall. The dragon let fly with another blast of flame. "This is not working," groaned Lydia, as she resumed her human form. Tam wrapped his hands around Lydia's ankle and sent waves of soothing energy to heal the damage that had been done. "We don't have enough power to beat that beast." she finished.

"Then maybe we need something else to beat it," said Didi. "Something it's not expecting. Hey archer..." The Black Arrow turned to face her. "...Got another one of those tornado arrows?" The Black Arrow nodded and drew the arrow and nocked it to his bow. "Nono no no, no , just wait until I explain what I have in mind, and then use it. Let's go over there, where the dragon can't see us. Tam, Jinn, that includes you two." As the mystic twins ducked around the corner of the demolished palace, Didi stopped for a moment to watch the other girls launch into a four person version of the maneuver they had used on the giant wrestler. "Ouch," said Didi

"You are fucking nuts, lady," said Tam, trying to be as calm as he possibly could. "What makes you think we could survive such an act of stupidity?"

"Look," said Didi. "It's the best plan that I could come up with on such short notice, if you think you can do better, then give it a shot. You have until the dragon finds us over here."

"All right," said Tam. "But what makes you think that this is going to work?"

"What have we got to lose?" said Didi. Jinn nodded in agreement, and Tam relented. The twins touched palms again and tapped into The Spirit Well. Didi watched the blinding corridor of energy blaze up into the sky. When the twins were ready for the next part of Didi's plan, they would nod their heads.

Both Tam and Jinn nodded their heads at almost exactly the same time. "Now," said Didi, tapping the Black Arrow on the shoulder. The archer nocked his arrow and let it fly at the twins. The shaft erupted into azure brilliance as it began to circle the column of energy. The supernatural bolt lapped the column faster and faster, as the vortex of a tornado climbed the blazing column of light

"It's working," said Didi. "It's working!"


Cat, Josie, Lydia, and Jazz knealed in front of the blazing pile of debris that once was Ming's palace. "I don't know about you guys," said Josie. "But this dragon has got me draggin'." The rest of the girls moaned at the pun, as Cat pushed Josie over with a gentle swat.

"We're not gonna make it this time, are we?" asked Lydia.

"Maybe, we've been through worse," said Cat

"Since when?" piped Jazz. Cat refrained from answering, as they had to dodge one of the dragon's fireballs. It was Cat that heard the rumble first, like thunder rolling through a storm. Didi appeared around the corner. "Get ready for some fireworks," she said. "You're gonna love this." Cat had to cover her sensative eyes as a briliant geyser of light and energy spiraled up into the sky. The girls watched as the vortes twisted around and traveled downwards, scooping up the dragon and spiraling into the sky once more. Didi ran around the corner once more and shouted at the base of the vortex.

"Get clear," she hollered. Tam and Jinn release their hands and ran as fast as they could from the vortex's base. A crash of lightning bolts traveled up the length of the vortex, and slammed into the dragon with a force that made the heavens blaze with glory.

"ALL RIGHT," cheered Jazz. Her cheers accedentally brought down a section of the parapet wall. "Oops," she said blushing. Cat wrapped her arms around Jazz and hugged her tightly. They had won.