Note: You can change font size, font face, and turn on dark mode by clicking the "A" icon tab in the Story Info Box.
You can temporarily switch back to a Classic Literotica® experience during our ongoing public Beta testing. Please consider leaving feedback on issues you experience or suggest improvements.
Click here
The Mind Flayer pulled the trigger. I flung myself to the right and a beam of snarling green lightning roared out of the barrel of the pistol and, just as I had totally planned, it smashed into the bars of the Princess' cell. The lightning tore through the bars at an angle, so it ripped through each one, leaving behind a huge smoldering furrow, like the bars had just decided to cease existing near the middle, giving plenty of room for anyone to crawl through. I laughed, then grabbed onto a bar on one of the non-shot cell doors. I yanked it as hard as I could.
And I could yank real hard.
The bar came free and I hurled it length wise down the corridor, so it caught the Mind Flayers in their tummies, sending them sprawling backwards with a series of angry hisses. Then I turned and saw that P90 and G282 were running towards the end of the corridor, to the far end of the jail. P90 was holding the Princess under one arm and had pulled out another freaking grenade. I ran after her.
"I thought you disarmed!" I shouted.
"I lied," P90 said, flicking her wrist. The grenade whipped down the corridor and hit the brick wall. It exploded with a whump and we rushed through the smoke and out onto the street. Alarms were wailing from the jail. I looked around, and saw that there was a chain link fence between us and the escape, and a few cop cars were starting to roar across green grass and around the planters, to get as many cops here as quickly as possible. Behind us, the Mind Flayers were staring to fire their jerk guns. Green beams of light shot through the smoke and I grabbed the two girls and yanked them out of the way.
The beams hit the fence. The fence stopped existiing in a ten foot wide circle.
Then the beams kept going and hit some cars in the parking lot. Those cars exploded with a roar of flames and a spray of shrapnel as their frames crumpled and their fuel went up. Fortunately, the beams stopped there. But they hadn't just blasted fence and car. It had also turned out protective haze of dust into just, uh, empty air. The Mind Flayers could see us if we ran past the door, and they sent their dogs forward with growling brain noises.
Ugh.
Brain noises were really squishy when they lacked skulls.
P90 scowled. "Okay, we steal a car, we get out of here," she said.
One of the brain-dogs leaped through the hole and right into my psi-sword. The cutting edge of the sword hit the brain and I sent it flying back into the other brain dog. Despite the fact that my psi-sword was made of hot and slice, the brain-dog didn't actually get burned or cut! Instead it just was flung backwards and after a few seconds, the two critters would get up. And the Mind Flayers were getting closer moment by moment.
"Figure out how one of the cars work, I'll cover you," P90 was saying to G282.
"Better idea!" I said, then leaped forward. As I leaped, I changed.
I was normally a cute small dragon or a human.
But that didn't mean I couldn't be a dragon dragon. And when I was full dragon, I went full motherflipping dragon. Mom had once measured my wingspan at almost fifty feet, and my foreclaws could pick up a van if they combined the awesome power of lefty and righty. So, it was pretty easy to scoop up the girls -- golems and princess and all -- as I beat my wings and soared up into the air, flying above San Francisco bay. I laughed.
"Hah!" I said, looking back over my shoulder. My tail whipped from side to side. "Beat that, Mind Jerks."
The Mind Flayers stood next to one another in a perfect line for a bit.
Then, as one, they started to float upwards into the air, flying after me.
"More like Cheating Flayers," I grumbled, then shouted. "I'm going to shift all of you to a comfortable room in my rib-cage, with seat belts and stuff!"
"You're what!?" P90 shouted.
But then I smashed them into my chest. I turned my scales permeable, sculpting the room between my lungs. I made bone bits that they could hold onto and added some leathery tendon things to hold them tight. Then I added a transparent bit at the front of my chest, right under my neck, so they could see what was going on! Then I closed my wings and went into a whirling, corkscrewing dive.
P90 clenched her jaw.
G282 screamed.
Princess Kira remained knonked out cause sleep spells are just the freaking worst.
This dive meant that I dodged the four gauss beams that would have torn apart huge chunks of my rump and tail. The Mind Flayers fanned outwards. Their flight was eerie and creepy as seeing a smiling clown. They didn't flap wings or spread their arms. They just stood, spines back, feet facing the ground, and hovered like they were on segways. More like skyways. That combined with their flapping cloaks and the fact they were gross uggos was not a goodly combo.
Then, delight!
Wailing sirens rang out and I saw two SWAT sky-cars joining the chase. They flew using a combination of human know how and magic. The heavy armor plating and the guns were all human. The flying was magic! And the cops inside were armored and prepped against any kind of nasty magical crimes. They flew behind the Mind Flayers, who were continuing to pepper the air with gauss beams as I twisted and wound, carefully flying away from any sky-scrapers so their misses would hit air.
"Unidentified humanoids!" A woman's voice shouted. "Stand d-"
I looked back, worried the Mind Flayers had blasterated the SWAT cars apart.
Instead, two of them had sheathed their swords and pistols, then placed their fingers against their temples. Shimmers around their heads made my eyes widen.
"Yes, Master," the SWAT girl said, still speaking into the microphone. "We shall destroy them."
"That's cheating!" I roared. "I can't beat up innocent coppicers!"
The SWAT cars roared forward, their forward mounted machine guns already hammering away. I yelped and backwinged hard, but this only meant that I got shot mostly rather than all-ly. Fortunately, even high caliber machine guns weren't that great at getting through dragon scales. Unfortunately, enough of anything can find the weak bits. Tiny stinging burns started to flare as bullets bit between scales and I yelped, my wings missing a beat. I fell slightly and the SWAT cars swung to show me their broadsides.
The sides opened and there were the heavily armed, highly trained coppers who had been just moments before been about to rescue me. They had freaking grenade launchers.
"Okay, this is going to feel weird as heck!" I shouted.
I shrank.
In one instant, I had gone from being proper dragon szied to human sized.
To keep from smooshing my passengers, though, I expelled the organ-bit I had stuck them into out of my side during the transfer, keeping it attached to my body by a strand of hardened gristle. It swung below me as I let my momentum and the lateral movement of the first SWAT car drag me into said van. I caught a grenade as it was fired, tossed it out of the car before it exploded. With my left arm dragged behind me by the weight of my passenger-organ, I had only my right arm to block a vibroknife swung at my forehead. Then I grew a third arm and shifted my left arm to my back, so it could keep holding while my two free arms got to work.
I grabbed the SWAT girl who was trying stab me by the wrist. I twisted her arm aside. "Sorry!" then I headbutted her. She groaned as she collapsed. "Sorry!"
Two SWAT dudes brought their SMGs to bear on me. I leaped up, kicking. Their SMGs went flying out the open side of the car and they staggered against the inside compartment. "Sorry!" I said, grabbing one and smashing his head against the wall -- gently as I could while still stunning him. The other had jerked his vibro-knife free. He swung it not at me, but at the strand that connected me to the carrying organ. I yelped and as the organ slithered free, the scrap of gristle squealing as it dragged along the floor.
I flung myself forward, catching it with both arms.
The mind controlled SWAT guy leaped for my back -- and fell right into an upper cut arm I grew out between my shoulder blades. He went sprawling back against the closed door on the other side of the SWAT car.
A sudden brrrupt of bullets jerked my attention around.
Below me, P90 had cut open a bit of the carrying organ and was leaning half out. She held one of the dropped SMGs and was firing bullets up at the other SWAT car, forcing it to skid and slew to the side to avoid getting shot in the fragile bits.
"Hey!" I shouted. "Don't kill anyone!"
"They're trying to kill us!" she shouted back.
I'd have to explain to her about my theme song later.
I rolled forward, letting myself fall off the SWAT car. It continued to zoom away, the driver no longer trying to bring its front guns to bear. Maybe he had shook off the Mind Flayer's mind control. Maybe he couldn't fire guns anymore because I had knocked everyone else out. Whatever the matter, I let him go. Instead, I focused on flying upwards. It was hard without wings. So, maybe the wings did do something. But as I held the organ beneath me -- the rippling flesh looking alarmingly thin and easily tearable, with the spread of San Francisco wheeling beneath us.
Then I saw why the SWAT car had zoomed off.
The Mind Flayers were sweeping forward. They had their pistols drawn and were aiming them at me, taking advantage of me dangling in the air.
"Is this the end of Brash!?" I yelped.
Yes, the Mind Flayer leader said.
They leveled their guns.
And I dropped the carrying organ. I could hear P90, G282 and even Princess Kira screaming as they started to tumble in the air. Suddenly not having their weight sent me shooting upwards. The beams of gauss energy shot past me, crackling as they tore apart the molecules in the air. Then I was flying straight down. I grabbed the organ, swinging it up in a curving arc, finally coming to a rest on the top of a huge skyscraper. As the organ landed and rolled, I swung around to face the Mind Flayers. They were zooming towards me.
I turned on my psi-sword and kicked on my theme song.
Freddy Mercury sang as I twisted and rolled away from a gauss beam that smashed into the roof-top, blowing a cherry red crater in concrete. Brash! Ahaaa! He'll save every one of us! Stand for every one of us!
A Mind Flayer risked a rush at the organ. I backflipped, slashing at him. Psi-sword met black sword and an unholy resonance rang in the air. The Mind Flayer skidded backwards in the air, his ankles actually slipping downward as his levitation prevented him from keeping pace. I landed, slashing quickly. I cut one of the huge AC machines free, then booted it between the organ and three beams of gauss energy. The AC machine turned into so much vapor.
I flew at one of the Mind Flayers. Our blades met again and again and again, that horrible resonance ringing out with every single impact. The Mind Flayer's eyes behind their nearly opaque face mask was widening. I grinned.
"You are cowards!" I laughed. "You're scared of one little bitty dragon, huh!?"
Die.
The booming voice in my head made the entire world seem to darken to almost nothing. It was like Ron Perlman had told me to do something. Even if I didn't want to do it, his voice was so commanding, it was hard to resist. I clenched my jaw...and then lifted my sword to parry the sword stroke that was aimed for my neck. Our blades locked, and I shoved backwards. The Mind Flayer almost fell onto his back in the air, his sword flying from his hand. It slammed, point first, into the concrete roof and lay there, hilt aiming up towards heaven.
Consensus, retreat, the Mind Flayer voice echoed in my head.
"Hah!" I grinned, then shot forward again. "Not gonna let you go!"
I grabbed for their dumb high collared robes -- planning to grab them and interrogate them. But just before my fingers closed down on leather, the four Mind Flayers vanished into the air with a crack of displaced air.
I sighed, crossing my arms over my chest.
"More like Jerk Flayers..." I muttered. "Wait, did I already say that?"
***
Normally, I could have just shifted my organ open. But since it had been cut free from my body, I no longer had any control over it. So, instead I had to lightsaber it up and tauntauned this bitch. But as I readied to cut the organ bit open, I bit my lip. That poor tauntaun. They should have taken better care of her, really. I shook my head, then gently sliced open a thin hole. Kira stuck her head out first, then yelped as she was yanked back. P90 glared out a moment later.
She glared at me more.
Then her glare ratcheted up another few notches.
Then, sounding like she was getting her teeth pulled out, she snarled. "Nice. Job."
I beamed. "All part of the day job of a swashbuckling dragon cyborg wizard psionicist adventurer!"
"Yeah, don't get a big head about it." P90 dragged herself out of the organ, then set her feet down. She had slung the borrowed SWAT SMG around her shoulders and then helped G282 out, then the Princess. The Princess looked woobly as heck, but she shook her head slightly, brushing her hands through her slightly gooped up hair.
"I can see, already, that finding you was the right decision," Princess Kira said, smiling shyly at me. I beamed at her, thrusting out my chest.
"At your service, Kira!" I said.
She blushed, hard.
G282 stepped up between me and Kira. She frowned, her hands going to her hips. Since she was goblin short, this was not super intimidating. Instead, all I could notice was that I could see my face in the reflections of her breasts, since her clothes were cut kinda low. Also, she was three feet tall and I was five feet tall and looking down at her. I started to make weird faces to see how they'd look in her golden boobage.
"Please refer to her as Princess Vin Lim," G282 said. "Or your Most Serene Highness."
"Oh, uh..." I blinked. "Uh, your, uh, Highness Serene Most!" I stammered. "I mean, uh, Most High...Serene...butts..." I trailed off. Dang it, I knew that looking at boobs had been a bad idea. It always made my brain skip a few steps. Kira giggled, her hand going to her mouth as her shoulders shook.
G282 sighed, loudly.
"We need to get out of here," P90 said, frowning. "Those SWAT cars are coming back."
I frowned. "And we don't want to get any easily mind controlled people involved..." I rubbed my chin. "So, we need to get to the wilderness. And nothing is more wilderness than space. So, we should get a spaceship!"
P90 blinked. "I..." She flushed, scowling at me. "Good idea."
I grinned. "Yup!"
Kira shook her head. "Where can we get a spaceship here?"
"Well..." I paused.
Flashback.
"You want to go to Mika's party?" Paul had asked me about two days before the adventure had started.
"Yeah!"
"Cause Cindi is going there?" Paul had looked skeptical.
"N-No! It's cause..." I had groped for a reason, stammering, then noticed that there was a flier nearby for Mika's party. It had said: Come, hang out, see my new spaceship ;) ;) ;). New spaceship. New spaceship. New spaceship. New spaceship. New spaceship. New spaceship.
I get it, flashback! Stop echoing!
"Mika's party!" I said, cheerfully.
The three others looked at me.
"Who?" Kira asked.
***
I landed on Mika's lawn with a rustle of wings and a crackling sound of leaves. They rustled and blew around me in great big piles. I smiled as the front door to the house opened and Mika came out. He was so cool! He had sunglasses and everything. He gaped at me and the three girls who were sliding off my back.
"What the heck are you doing here, Brash?" he asked.
"Uh, for the party?" I lied, shifting to my human form.
Mika whipped off his glasses. "That's not until the weekend, dude!"
"Brash?"
Cindi Fong stepped out of the front door, looking at me quizzically. I flushed, hard, stammering. "I-If it's not until the weekend, what is she doing here!?" I squeaked.
Mika looked at me as if I was completely nutso. "Dude, that's my sister?"
I looked at Mika. Then I looked at Cindi. Then I looked back at Mika. "Your last name is Fong?" I asked.
"Yes!" Mika shouted.
P90 sighed. "This is taking too long," she said, and before I could stop her, she had walked past me and punched Mika in the jaw. Mika went sprawling to the ground with a groan and Cindi screamed. I gaped at P90 as she knelt down and started rummaging around in Mika's pockets.
"Dude! What the flip!?" I yelped.
"Where are the keys?" P90 scowled.
"What keys? What the hell are you? What the fuck!?" Cindi ran forward and kicked at P90's head. P90 caught her ankle and held it at a pretty good distance from her temple. Cindi's arms cartwheeled and spun around as P90 looked up at her. Cindi, thanks to her nearly superhuman cheerleading skills, managed to keep herself standing upright, hopping on one foot as her arms spun.
"We need your brother's spaceship," she said, frowning.
"That's my ship!" Cindi squealed.
"Oh, that makes this easier," P90 said, standing up. She let go of Cindi's wrist, then started to pat her down. Cindi squirmed and then punched P90 in the jaw. P90 blinked, then rubbed at her jaw.
"You're stronger than you look," she said, sounding impressed. Cindi stepped backwards, then turned and ran into the house.
"Did you learn nothing from Otto Von Bismark!?" I shouted at P90, jogging towards the door.
"Who?" P90 asked as I grabbed the door. I swung it open and found myself facing Cindi with a shotgun. Arousal level set to twelve. Cindi, with her eyes closed, pulled the trigger. I squeaked, my arousal level dropping to a...well, to be honest, to an eleven. The spray of the bullets I expected was actually just a fine explosion of gritty dust. It smashed into my face and chest and didn't actually hurt at all. Cindi opened one eye, then squeaked.
"Brash?" she asked.
"Salty!" I licked my lips.
P90 slipped past me before I could stop her. She yanked the shotgun from Cindi's hands, then added it to her bandoleer. "Thanks," she said, then slipped her hand into Cindi's pocket. She yanked the FOB free and started past Cindi, who looked like she was still appalled at what she had done.
"Ohmygosh, are you okay?" she asked.
"Yep!" I said.
"No..." Mika groaned behind me.
Kira and G282 followed after P90, Kira pausing to bow. "We are so sorry, Miss Fong!" she said.
Cindi started. "Wait!"
She ran after them. I ran after her. Our conga line of impatient golems and reasonably upset prettiest girls in school came to a doorway that P90 casually kicked inwards. Hinges tore and wood splintered and Kira stammered. "P-P90, are you sure that you need to cause this much damage?"
"It's about efficiency, Princess," P90 said. Then with a slow whistle, she purred. "Oh hello there, beautiful."
I peeked over P90's shoulders and gaped.
Sitting in the garage, its electric engine plugged into the wall socket, was a freaking spellyacht. It had been built from keel to prow to be a spelljammer -- no reverse engineering here. The hull was entirely enclosed and cone shaped, with a pointed nose. The wooden paneling was painted a bright red, and the doors that led into the main living section at the back were decorated with spiraling dragons. The name on the prow was the Rusty Dragon. Which was an awesome name for a ship, if you asked me. Thanks to the spelljammer helm, it hovered about five feet off the ground. The engines at the back were a pair of ionic thrusters, but I could see a quartet of retracted booms that could be thrust out to make sails for backup engines. And there was a subspace engine that smoothly emerged from the "bottom" half of the cone shape, for transit between solar systems without needing a risky trip into the Phlogiston or any other form of planar travel.
