It was then that his mind filled with a familiar voice, from the ground.
"Threeeeee... twoooooo..."
'Oh crap,' thought Flash.
"Onnnneeeeee..."
An explosion, the likes of which dwarfed anything that had gone on previously, thundered out concentrically from a single point on the ground below him. That point was Vasuki. Everything on the ground that hadn't been protected by magic in a two hundred metre radius was decimated. Life ended instantly on an epic scale. Manson and his monstrous bride would have died, if not for Earth's split second intervention, wrapping her personal shield around them both, providing immunity from the superheated wave of fire, fury and magic. The timing of her arrival had been nothing short of miraculous. Nagas were indiscriminately cut in half, their bodies burned and torn asunder. In the air confusion reigned, the concussive blast bursting the eardrums of many dragons, affecting their balance and of course their flying aptitude, Flash included. Knowing exactly what had happened, he was only too aware of what he needed to do. Unlike every other being left alive, he turned tail and headed at speed directly towards the epicentre of the blast, ground zero... Vasuki.
'Damn, he wasn't kidding,' thought Flash as he approached his target. There, lying on the ground, totally silent and still, the naga king's body resembled a statue that had tumbled to the floor, never to be picked up. Considering his options in double quick time, and noticing that a path leading directly to the shield and his friends had been fully cleared of all and any enemies, he had but one thought. SAFETY! However temporary it might be. And so with outstretched talons, and with the tenderness and care associated with mother crocodiles when they carry their newborn babies to the water in their jaws, Flash swooped down, picked up Vasuki's motionless body and, zipping along no higher than a metre off the ground at quite a blistering speed, headed directly towards the shield, his friends and the monarch he would unquestioningly die for. As his elegant, powerful and quite stunning body cut through the air on something of a collision course, a stray thought tickled his brain.
'I wonder if they'll recognise me?'
Rocked from their thoughts about the White Dragon prophecy, each and every being behind the protective shield flinched as a wave of utter devastation rippled out from a point directly behind their enemies.
'That's where Flash and the naga king were,' thought Peter, concerns for his friend overriding every self preservation instinct he had.
'What the...?' thought Richie, not knowing what to make of all the nagas being sliced in two directly in front of her.
George and Fredric turned to face the commotion, ready to fight at a moment's notice.
Yoyo continued to heal, unperturbed. His band of misfits were somewhat startled, but maintained their composure enough to carry out their duties.
As the smoke, debris, blood and body parts cleared, a dramatic, eye-catching and remarkable sight had them all shaking in their boots.
Faster than a speeding bullet, a striking, unrecognisable, silver dragon, its talons hooked into a naga body directly beneath it, headed their way at breakneck speed, seemingly with no intention of stopping.
"That naga corpse must be some sort of bomb," screamed one of Yoyo's young charges from somewhere near the back.
"I think we may be in trouble," suggested Fredric from George's side.
"Don't panic," Peter told Janice. "I'm going to change into my dragon form to protect you... stay sheltered behind me."
And with that, the young hockey playing dragon released the bonds of his DNA and started his transformation. It was anybody's guess whether he'd be ready in time.
Reinforcing the front of the shield with every ounce of magic she could muster, something scratched her soul, stabbed her dragoness, prodded her psyche... something familiar.
'It can't be, can it?' she thought, as the mother of all collisions rumbled towards them like a runaway freight train. It was all on her. Nobody else had the power or time to do anything about it; all their lives quite literally depended on her next actions. And so with timing down to one thousandth of a second, she dropped the shield in front of her as the glorious winged beast passed through the barrier, narrowly avoiding all the beings gathered there, and glided to a halt in less time than anyone there thought it possibly could, just in front of Yoyo and the wounded he was working on. Gently it dropped its cargo to the ground. To everyone's surprise it was Vasuki, the naga king. Almost failing to remember, Richie reignited the wall of the shield she'd brought down to let their flying visitor in. Once again they were all surrounded by magic and, at least for the time being, relatively safe.
"What have you done, child?" yelled the king at Richie. "Why did you let it pass?"
"It's Flash... Your Majesty," she replied, sarcastically.
"I'd know that Crimson Guard in a heartbeat. Not only can he not assume his original form, but that looks nothing like what he once was. Everyone on me," announced the king. "Ready your magic!"
Despite her severe injuries, Amelia Battlehard was the first to do as the king asked, a blistering ball of brilliant, crimson energy clasped firmly between both her hands, ready and waiting to be used.
"Whoa..." came a soft, startled voice from behind the newest prehistoric addition to join the group.
"Peter?" announced the perfectly formed silver dragon, noticing the bent whistle shape on the scales of the dragon crouched over Janice.
"FLASH!" stated the young hockey player, hardly able to believe his eyes.
"Of course it's me. Who else do you think could pull off something as stunningly wicked as that? Yoyo, I know you're tending to injuries, but could you take a look at Vasuki please? He used up all his magic in buying us a chance to get over here. I couldn't feel his presence anywhere inside his body. I'm not sure he made it."
Apologising profusely to the dragon he was attending to, Yoyo leapt up, heading straight for the naga king, slapping Flash's stomach as he sprinted past.