Releasing his grip on Casey's kidney, the screaming stopped as the evil dragon's body visibly relaxed, only to be replaced by thick, heavy sobbing. Knowing time was of the essence, Flash soldiered on.
"Tell us everything you know... NOW!"
High pitched whimpers punctuated the sobbing, with the odd snuffle thrown in for good measure. But still Casey resisted.
"Go to hell!" he barely managed to snort.
'No more mister nice guy,' Flash thought, as he once again wrapped his fingers around Casey's kidney, squeezing for all he was worth.
Instantly the evil tormentor collapsed roughly to his knees. Janice only just managed to avoid being crushed, as she continued to hold Fu-ts'ang close to the dragon's scales, ready to pounce at a moment's notice.
For the life of her, Richie couldn't see how on earth this was a better way than reaching into Casey's mind and plucking the information from it. Of course there might have been risks, but surely that was better than pure and simple torture. But despite the screams, her mind had raced to what lay further ahead. She didn't consider herself squeamish, but the thought of what was to come truly turned her stomach. However, it was her responsibility. After all, they'd chosen her, and now wasn't the time to burden someone else with a deed like that. Not that she necessarily could, even if she'd wanted to.
The scream, or probably screams, it was so hard to tell now as they all seemed to blend into one, had increased considerably in pitch, so much so that even the surrounding local dragons had taken to covering their ears. Flash, meanwhile, had to shout at the top of his voice to make himself heard.
"I'm starting to lose my patience. Tell us what you know!"
Relaxing his grip just a little this time, Flash expected the foul dragon to finally concede defeat. Through the loud sobbing and the intermittent racking coughs, Casey mouthed two words. Flash couldn't quite make out the first, but the second one was most definitely, "OFF!"
With no thought about being watched, the former Crimson Guard reached down deep inside and found the agent persona of the dragon he used to be. Cool, calm and calculating jumped to the fore. It was time to show this scum sucking dragon who was in charge. Who was to be feared. It was time to unleash... the big guns!
Richie watched Casey mouth two words.
'Flash isn't going to like that very much,' she thought, surprised that her ex-classmate was still putting up a fight. Thinking about the outcome between the two dragons, as most of us do about decisions that affect us on a daily basis, it didn't take her long to make up her mind. There and then, she'd bet the house on Flash, and she'd have been right to do so.
With his hand still wrapped around Casey's twitching kidney, albeit not very tightly, Flash had already made his decision. As in a human body, a dragon's kidney is one of the most sensitive organs. Flash not only knew this, but he'd been counting on it as well. Now it was time to see just how sensitive it was. He didn't squeeze this time. Oh no. Instead, he pulled his fingers back ever so slightly, and then with all his might... dug in with his nails!
Dragons and humans alike threw themselves to the ground, all apart from Richie and the old shopkeeper, so abrupt and brutal was the sound coming from between Casey's jaws. Richie hadn't thought the pain could be ratcheted up any further, but quite clearly it had been.
'Flash hasn't been kidding about any of his exploits then,' she thought, looking on.
'Of all the assets I have, he could be the one to turn this in our favour. Even stuck in his human form,' she concluded.
Having dug his nails in for as long as he could, Flash pulled them out, tiny bits of kidney nestling underneath them. The noise subsided. Tears, saliva, blood and urine formed a moat around the spent looking dragon as he coughed, gurgled and cried. Once again, Flash spoke. Not so much a question, as an order.
"Tell us all you know!"
This time he did. Every last thing.
He told them how the enslaved nagas had little choice but to help with the plan, due to the internment of their king. He told them how some of the dragons were nagas in disguise. He told them how the monorail and all the telepathic newspaper nodes had been taken down across the entire planet. He told them about the prison in Antarctica, the one Flash had fleetingly visited. He told them how it would start with London, with the council and the king. He told them they knew about Tim's destiny and Peter's relationship with the king. That's why they'd been taken. He told them about the army of both dark dragons and nagas, here underground and on the surface. Ready to strike. Ready to die. He told them how the planet would be reshaped into something they would barely recognise. He told them it was unstoppable. He told them they had no chance. He told them every last detail.
It was done. She'd got what she wanted. Quite a big part of her wished she hadn't. If any of the others felt remotely like she did, then they'd be stunned, frightened... terrified for their very existence. But she couldn't afford to be any of those things now. Not here. Now she had to be strong. Be a leader. Show... no fear! Grim and determined, she stalked forwards towards Casey, who was by now curled up into a foetal position on the ground. Motioning to both Janice and Flash to move away, they did so.
"Get up!" she commanded, her voice full of steel and passion.
Casey just continued to shudder and whimper in his ball on the floor. Walking round to where his thick, scaly tail had curled up into the shape of a long deceased ammonite, she grabbed a section about a foot from the end firmly, and in a move so swift it would have rivalled anything Flash could have done, she drew the laminium dagger from her belt at the small of her back, whipped it around and sliced right through that part of Casey's tail. The howl that emanated from the broken dragon almost matched those from Flash's torture, for that's what it had been. As the foot long section of tail crumpled to the floor, Richie unrepentantly kicked it away.
"GET UP!" she screamed.
All the time howling, coughing and crying, he did.
As Richie stood and faced her former classmate, she held but one image in her head from when she'd first arrived on the scene. That of Tank and Flash swaying in the air, dangling from the metal monstrosity, their flesh shredded. It was meant to help her. It was meant to make things easier. It didn't.
She thought about words. Words to explain, to justify, to condemn. But there was simply no point. Words weren't the answer. The only answer was action. And so she took it. It was that simple. Almost without a thought, she brought the laminium dagger up and around from her side, all the time keeping that image in her head and channelling her intentions into the blade. It was easy. All too easy as a matter of fact. Having already chosen the point of impact, she hit it spot on. The laminium dagger cut through the scales, the arteries and the bone, much as a knife would cut through butter. There was little, if any, resistance. Time stood still, as the recognition of what had happened lingered on Casey's face for but a moment. Richie watched, totally disconnected, as his oversized severed head toppled off his thick, muscular neck, dropping end over end onto the dark cobbles, landing with a spectacular THUD. His body fell beside it.
Emma, watching from a distance with Angela, instantly threw up. Janice let out a surprisingly loud gasp, as the local dragons all bowed their heads, some whispering words that couldn't be made out. Tank stood agog, not knowing what to make of it. A tiny part of him had wanted Casey to pay for the horrific events of earlier, but not like this. Never like this.
'He could have been locked up somewhere, until the council were able to deal with him,' he thought. 'Things seem to be spiralling out of control.'