03:09
Episode 3: Dog Days Mechanix
Part 9
Laurel stood in the opening to the underground room. Her two katanas held before her ready to attack.
“Stop right there!” she shouted.
The woman in red stood behind the alter nearly obscured by the bright glow surrounding her and the ugly long haired chihuahua floating above the top of the alter. The pace of the woman’s chanting sped up.
“God damn it, I said stop!” Laurel threw one of the katanas at the woman but the sword flew away when it contacted the glowing field, shattering when it hit the cinder block wall.
“Get away from that dog!”
Laurel charged the alter, her sword held out before her ready to skewer the woman.
The chanting stopped. The woman stretched out one arm towards Laurel. A red light erupted from her palm towards Laurel. The light slammed into her chest and pushed her back against the wall where Ned still lay watching the scene. Laurel hit the wall on her spine and dropped like a rag doll onto the floor. Ned rolled over and fired the forty five into Laurel’s thigh. She yowled in pain and Ned laughed.
“You two are becoming obnoxious,” he told her through his own clenched teeth.
But before he could fire again Laurel reached out with her hand and snatched the pistol from Ned’s hand. She ejected the clip onto the floor and swung back, smacking Ned in the forehead with the gun barrel.
“Go to sleep Ned,” Laurel hissed. Ned’s eyes rolled back into his head and he fell asleep.
Violet moaned. It was the first time Laurel had noticed her partner in the room and she crawled forward to check on her. Laurel laid her hands on Violet’s bloody, smashed shoulder and looked over her body slowly with her tearing eyes.
“You are a mess: shoulder gone, concussion, eight broken ribs, punctured lung. Oh fuck, both of your wrists were fractured.” She looked into Laurel’s eyes. “But you’re healing.”
“Ge… Get me ou… out of here,” Violet pleaded.
Laurel bit her lower lip and picked up the remaining katana with one hand. She smoothed back Violet’s bloody blond hair with the other.
“You’ll live. I promise. I gotta save Leeloo first.”
She stood and moved to challenge the woman once more, ignoring her own damaged but quickly healing leg.
“No… no heroes!” Violet ordered.
Laurel ignored her partner and moved again to save the dog.
The chanting grew faster and louder and the woman’s voice shrill like a whipping wind. Leeloo stopped whimpering and her eyes flashed red like taillights on a car.
“Leave the dog alone!” Laurel shouted and charged again. The woman held her hand out and once more a red light shot towards Laurel. This time Laurel was ready. She ducked and the light sailed past her to smash the cinder block wall showering Ned and Violet with pebbles of concrete. Laurel ran forward and hacked at the woman’s outstretched arm with her katana. The light blast and the glowing field around Leeloo ceased when the blade sliced into the woman’s flesh. She raised her other hand but Laurel leaped beside her, twirled and cut into her forearm. The woman screamed. She turned and ran, abandoning Leeloo, Ned and the room to Laurel.
The robot laughed. She examined the sword and smiled at it.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me about these things before?”
With a sigh she lay the sword on the alter and picked up Leeloo, snapping her chain with her free hand. Leeloo growled at the robot. Her eyes glowed red and her teeth were bared. Laurel examined the dog.
“What did they do to you, sweetie? It’s me. Your friend.”
Leeloo yapped menacingly then opened her jaws and tried to bite Laurel’s jugular. Laurel lurched back, jammed the viscous dog under one arm and went to Violet’s side.
“I’m gonna get you out of here,” She told Violet.
Leeloo thrashed in the robots grip and, breaking free, jumped down onto Violet’s chest. The dog stood on her, looking onto Violet’s brown eyes while Violet stared back into its own red orbs. After a moment the dog’s head jerked back in surprise. She brought her muzzle closer to Violet’s face and sniffed. Satisfied of something, Leeloo lay down on Violet’s chest and began licking the sticky half-dried blood from her neck and chin.
Laurel grimaced at the sight and bent to pick her partner up in both arms. Leeloo growled as Laurel bent closer and snapped at her face as she picked the crushed and bloody woman up.
“I’m taking her out of here,” Laurel told the dog. “She’ll be safe.”
This seemed to satisfy the dog. It lay down once more but did not move its eyes from Laurel. The robot carried Violet through the hole in the wall. Ned reached out to grab her leg as she passed.
“Oh just get a clue you useless fuck,” she shouted at him and walked away into the basement.
A pink, five clawed hand like a scaled garden rake batted Laurel, Violet and Leeloo back into the round room. Laurel fell backwards, dropping Violet and Leeloo to the floor. The hole filled with a pink lizard head that was all scales and horns and long, jagged teeth.
“It’s a – a fucking dragon,” said Laurel.
Ned laughed.
“Clue gotten, bitch!” he shouted. “You have no idea what you’re dealing with.”
Laurel snatched her katana from the alter and stepped forward to protect Violet and Leeloo.
“No. Don’t be a… hero,” wheezed Violet.
Laurel glanced back to her partner. “Too late.”
She took a gymnast’s run and leaped into the air turning a flip and springing open the katana when the spin brought her closest. The dragon snapped its neck around, closing its jaws around the blade, threatening to shatter it.
Laurel turned herself enough to save her katana, but her body smacked into the dragon’s shoulder. The dragon caught Laurel as she fell to the ground, lifting her back up to the menacing jaws.
Laurel twisted in the dragon’s grasp. She swung the katana around in a wide, wild arc away from its jaws and towards the dragon’s massive fingers around her waist. The blade caught between two scales, slicing deep into the lizard’s flesh.
The dragon bellowed and dropped Laurel to the ground where she rolled. The dragon’s tail swished towards her and Laurel swiped at it with the katana. The blade was deflected by a thick armor of scales but Laurel caught sight of the belly.
Overlapping scales like plywood protected it there but Laurel thought she had found a weak spot. She rolled under the tail and swung the blade up until the point caught under the edge of one scale, then thrust up.
Thick black blood coursed down the katana and the dragon roared in pain. Laurel withdrew the blade and brought it back up to slash the dragon’s face opening a deep gash from its eye to the edge of its mouth.
The dragon fell onto its side. It held one clawed hand to its bleeding face and the other to its belly. Laurel dropped the katana and stood tall before the beast. She stepped to its back leg and kicked it hard.
“Bitch!” yelled the dragon. Its voice was like the sliding of boulders down a mountain. “I’ll kill you!”
Laurel swung around with her leg again and kicked out at the back of the dragon’s hand. There was the sound of breaking bone and the dragon screamed.
“Don’t call me bitch you overgrown toad,” Laurel shouted at it. She walked to where Violet lay with Leeloo standing guard next to her. The dog growled as Laurel approached, she hopped up onto Violet’s chest as Laurel lifted her up. Leeloo settled into the center of a platter sized blood stain across Violet’s sweatshirt watching Laurel; ears back, teeth bared.
The dragon moaned as they passed it. Laurel paid no attention. As they passed out of the room Ned grabbed at the Laurel’s leg. She shook his hand away without looking at him.
“Loser,” she said and walked out of the house.
