Back in Salisbridge, before he'd boarded his ride to the surface, before he'd put on the boots and travelled halfway across the world, his friend, Tank, had told him about the chains... what they did, not how to break them of course... they were unbreakable. Apparently though, they could be changed... changed to something that would almost certainly benefit those on his side, those fighting to be free. And so reaching out with one hand, watching as the jailer approached wielding some kind of terrifying weapon, Flash gripped Fredric's tethered chain, and with what little belief and willpower he had left, whispered the words.
Disorientated, but still in one piece, Yoyo once again prepared to enter the fray, taking a moment to decide what to do. It was then that he noticed it... the jailer advancing on Flash, waving about something sharp and deadly. Bringing forth the most powerful magic he knew, he let rip with brilliant purple shards of energy, hoping against hope to strike the jailer down, but not really believing such a thing was possible from so far away.
Amused at his opponent making a grab for one of the unbreakable chains, Joshim, in his heightened state, was almost in total frenzy now. There could be no denying him this, nothing was going to stand in his way. The life was his to take. And with no ceremony, no fuss, just a roar that was pure, unadulterated pleasure, he thrust his rust ridden, achingly sharp screwdriver straight through Flash's heart.
Tense couldn't do justice to how Hardtoignite and his comrades were feeling right at this very moment, facing off against all the creatures from the capture and containment level. Throughout the cold, dark and foreboding council chamber, crusty black lava adorning most of the marble pillars, an undercurrent of magic was almost tangible. At the back, by the door, the orchestrators, the ra-hoon, waited, letting their new subjects take the lead. Formidable as they might be, their enemy stood little real chance against the combined fighting force of the creatures here. Schemes, plans and plots whirled throughout the intelligent creatures' minds, barely able to contain their excitement about what was to begin, eager to see if their predictions would come to pass.
Although generally quite self absorbed, it hadn't taken long for Hardtoignite to realise there really was no other way out than to fight. With that in mind, he'd briefed the others telepathically on what he thought was their best chance of success. It relied wholly on surprise, with them all throwing everything they had into a major area of effect attack at exactly the same time, targeting the entire force in front of them. Inside their telepathic connections, a timer was counting down, and currently stood on seven.
Unfortunately for them, the asenas could smell the magic they'd concocted for their private chat, and took that as a sign to attack. And so they did, their brilliant blue manes waving majestically as they took off at full pelt towards Manson's caught-off-guard force of priests, academics and librarians, who were standing still, nervously waiting for the timer to reach its conclusion.
Hardtoignite reacted first, unleashing his magic on the count of four, before his comrades had even thought to act. Striking dead centre, that first devastating attack killed one or two of the impossibly rare magical creatures on impact, as well as destroying a huge chunk of the massive trident shaped table, but forced the rest to scatter randomly throughout the room, negating Hardtoignite's plan of hitting them all at once. As things went to hell, magic exploded, energy rebounded, creatures roared, cried out and went berserk, savagely assailing their opponents, killing them all in the most brutal of fashions... scaled apes feasting on intestines, pixiu scrapping over discarded limbs, wicked brown lizards lapping up bodily fluids, with the nifoloa plunging their single giant tooth into anything that remotely resembled food. All the time the ra-hoon looked on from the doorway, taking a keen interest in just how long it would take their task force to destroy these so called superior beings. Not long as it turned out. Not long at all.
In the midst of the battle deep beneath the Antarctic, pure unadulterated ecstasy rolled through every atom of his body as the menacing screwdriver slid through the leader's heart, eliciting a laugh that was so vile, so sickening, that even the devil himself would shy away from it. Given everything going on around him, it would have come as a surprise to find that the most magical thing going on right at that very moment, not just in that cavern but across the entire planet, was only an arm's length away.
He died. The jagged metal length of the screwdriver had pierced his heart. There could have been no other outcome. But fate, if that's what it was, had other ideas. Microseconds before he'd been killed, he finished mouthing the words... Tank's words, the mantra that he'd recounted, the one that would turn the unbreakable chains restraining the prisoners into laminium. Instantly the magic had taken effect, and as the weaponised screwdriver had plunged deep into Flash's false form of a body, something wholly supernatural had happened in his immediate vicinity. If time had slowed right down, it would have gone something like this.
As the tip of the screwdriver entered Flash's flesh, he finished reciting the mantra. Immediately and with little fuss or indication, the metal in the unbreakable chains that had spent decades restraining Fredric, transformed into pure laminium. In less than a heartbeat, very much like the metal, Fredric was reborn. Unimaginable, that's how it felt. Like a harsh winter's day suddenly turning into the height of summer... darkness into light... a strong spirit crushing hopelessness out of sight. In less than a hundredth of a second, Peter's grandfather totally repaired his destroyed kneecap, broken nose and splintered cheek, flooding them with just a fraction of the absurd amount of power he found himself possessed of. Flushed with magic that had been missing from his life and body for so long, his mind reached out into his surroundings, exploring, searching, looking to see how he could best be of use. In that instant, he developed a very real and personal connection with Flash, whose skin, like Fredric's, brushed firmly against the metal of the chains. There and then, they were one. Flash, Fredric, the chains... there was no telling them apart. For all intents and purposes, they were one entity. And so as the screwdriver slid deep into Flash's heart, extinguishing his long and eventful life, the part of the entity that was Fredric called on the almost limitless supply of power at his disposal and reversed what had just happened, acting much as a god would. A billionth of a second after Flash had died, the screwdriver's barbed and sharpened shaft disintegrated, leaving just the worn wooden handle in Joshim's grip. Infused with magic, the damage to Flash's heart was undone, along with the deadly wound. As the magic flowed across both beings, and the metal linking them, the ethereal power, almost of its own accord, found something else, something unusual, something incredibly wrong, all the way down at the subatomic level. Instinctively and without any guidance from either of the beings, it righted a wrong in the blink of an eye, returning that which once was, and should always have been. Satisfied at its work, and having all but topped up both beings, the magic retreated back into the chains, stored and waiting, ready to be called upon at a moment's notice.
Dumbfounded and momentarily confused, the expression on Joshim's face was priceless, as he stood there, wondering not only where the rest of the screwdriver had gone, but how the hell the leader, strewn out in front of him, had just opened his eyes wide, a tantalising smile spread across his face.
With the chaos of the battle still raging all around them, their own private war broke out there and then, the vile little jailer roaring with fury, his temper boiling out of control. Instantly he leapt at Flash, diving full force, his chipped yellow teeth bared in a snarl, the flimsy looking rags adorning his body flailing out behind him. A new found awareness having inundated every atom of his being, Flash found himself vaguely amused by what he knew now to be a rather pitiful attempt at an attack. Ready, willing and more than a little able, he flooded himself with as much power as he dared, and readied himself to take down the depraved little beast. From out of nowhere, a high pitched whine sliced through the cold, frosty air, only inches above Flash's face. Common sense told the ex-Crimson Guard that he should remain flat on the ground and so he did, grateful to let the huge chunk of laminium chain bypass him. The jailer, on the other hand, was not nearly so lucky. Having ripped the chain fully from the wall of ice that had so long contained it and him, Fredric had whipped it around using all his newfound magical power, catching Joshim full in the face, mid-dive. Metal carving through bone and flesh had never felt so satisfying, as the unedifying form of the distressed jail keeper ploughed into the base of a nearby wall. Sure he could leave Fredric to the sweet revenge he knew he must have craved, Flash leapt to his feet and, powered by magic, rejoined the fight, determined to assist Yoyo's ragtag band of dragons in ridding themselves of the rest of the fighting force.