Renegade belongs to me and Vladislave belongs to Soulz Studios.
The fearsome, superpowered alien known as Renegade went to a casino to attack and rob it since he viewed casino owners as criminals who exploit others. He had his two pet ravens, Moses and Aaron, perched on his shoulders as he walked. As they approached the casino, they realized it was oddly quiet. Renegade walked inside and discovered a number of bodies lying on the ground. The people were alive, but they were unconscious and in a state of shock as though they had experienced something overwhelmingly terrifying.
Renegade looked them over and realized they had suffered some kind of powerful psychological attack, similar to those who experienced his torturous thought clouding technique he called “prison without bars”. He found himself smiling, and he reflected out loud, “So, someone got here first, and whoever it is must really be something else!” He noticed that the gambling money was still lying on the tables. He thought, “Whoever did all this must not have cared about the money. Either this was a personal revenge or he objected to what was happening here on a moral level like I do. Well, since the money’s still here, I can take it to donate to a children’s hospital like I’d wanted! It was nice of whoever it was to leave it!”
As he was gathering and bagging the money, he heard someone groaning from the next room. He used his thought clouding power to appear as a normal human, then went to investigate. There was a man who was distressed, but in better shape than the people in the other room. The disguised Renegade told him, “It’s okay, son. I won’t hurt you.”
“Oh, thank goodness!” the frightened man replied.
“What happened here?”
“He-He attacked us!”
“Who?”
“V-Vladislave, the dream dragon! He was a blue d-dragon with diamonds on his tail, and spurs on his legs, and a black trench coat!”
Renegade mused on how similar that description was to his own appearance before responding, “How did he attack? With psychic power?”
“Yes, he made us hallucinate! It felt like my mind was cracking open!”
“It looks like you’re in better shape than the others.”
“He said it was because the others were worse. He said he was giving me a chance to get help.”
“‘Help’? You’re a gambling addict?”
“Yeah… I don’t like to talk about it, but yeah.”
“I understand. I know it’s hard, but you should get help to recover because otherwise your addiction can ruin you and hurt those close to you.”
“I will, I promise.”
“Okay, I believe in you. You stay here and I’ll call the police, okay?”
“Okay.”
Renegade left the building, called the police, and then went to where he could observe things without being seen. He told Moses and Aaron, “Go look and see if you can spot this Vladislave guy. I’d like to meet him.”
Moses and Aaron obeyed, flying high into the sky to begin their search. Soon the police & paramedics came to take Vladislave’s victims to the hospital. As he watched, Renegade reflected on a number of things, including his own struggles with gambling addiction.
Finally, after the emergency crew had left, Moses & Aaron returned and informed Renegade where they had spotted the superpowered dragon. They seemed unsettled. Renegade told them, “I appreciate it. Go back to the ship and wait for me. I’ll be back before the night’s over.” The ravens flew back as the gaunt alien started headed in Vladislave’s direction.
It wasn’t long before he found the dragon resting in a secluded area where he could appear in his true form. The two superpowered creatures spent several seconds observing each other, not just to compare and contrast their appearances, but also to reflect on their fearsome auras. Renegade found himself feeling anxious, but he finally spoke, “So you’re Vladislave.”
“Yes,” replied Vladislave, “and you’re Renegade.”
“It’s good to hear you know about me. I came across your work at that casino back there. I have to say you did a masterful job with those greedy parasites. It’s rare to see someone so skilled. I’m also glad you showed some mercy to that poor addict.”
“Yes, I wanted to give him a chance to turn his life around.”
“That’s good.”
“Thank you. You didn’t come here just to tell me that, though.”
“You’re right. First off, I wanted to learn more about you. You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to, but I am curious about where you’re from, how you got your powers, etc.”
“Well, it’s taken me a while to learn to control them, but I’ve had my powers since I was young.”
“Really? It would have been nice if that had been the case with me, but I got my powers as an adult. It was the result of me being hit by and absorbing experimental energy some scientists on my planet had been working with. My system somehow absorbed both the energy and the bacteria that produced it. It mutated my body and gave me the ability to fire energy & do some other things, like cloud minds.”
Vladislave could have shared how he came from a crystal palace in a sky realm populated by beings such as angels, souls, and dragons, but he knew he shouldn’t reveal anything about that realm, so he shared the backstory created to hide the specific details about his origin. After all, it felt very real to him. “I was created by a lucid dreamer.”
“So that’s why you’re called a dream dragon.”
“Mmm-hmm. I was my creator’s favorite creation. I was his personal guard, but in the end I took my creator’s life. He created his own subconscious realm to avoid all negativity instead of dealing with his problems in a healthy way. He cut himself off from his friends and family… from the people who cared about him and could help him. I talked to him, but he refused to listen. He kept us both imprisoned in a self-made world where nothing was real. I became enraged and I… I broke his brain in my rage. He died as a result. I scratched up the walls when I realized what I had done, but there was nothing I could do to change what had happened.”
Renegade had looked shocked when Vlad admitted to killing his creator, but he looked thoughtful during the rest of the story. He responded, “That explains why you treat addicts the way you do.”
“Hmm?”
“This is just my guess, but they probably remind you of your creator, who became addicted to his own dream realm. You’re angry at them, but you also want to save them from ending up like your creator. You attack them, but also show them mercy so they have a chance to change their ways so they and their loved ones can live a good life.”
Vladislave thought about this for a while. Renegade then spoke again. “I can’t say if what you did was right or wrong, but I can say three things for sure. One, what your creator did wasn’t right. He should have accepted your help and broken free from his prison without bars. Two, I understand all too well about losing control and doing things in anger… things you later regret. Three, I also understand wishing harm against your creator.” He gestured to his body. “Can you see what’s between the clothes and the bones?”
Vladislave used his psychic powers to see the numerous scars on Renegade’s skin. “Yes.”
“The monster who fathered me is responsible for every one of these scars, and for my becoming a gambling addict.” Renegade’s anger grew as he spoke. “He abused not just me, but my siblings too. I have anger not just for him, but also the group he was a member of when he was alive. They talk about helping people, but they never helped me! They never did anything at all! If I had gotten powers when I was a child, who knows what I… what I could have done… what I would have…” He shuddered for a while, his hand clenched into a fist. Then he heaved a sigh and tried to relax his hand. “Screw that now! You wanna fight? I do.”
“I accept your challenge, though I want to know why you want to fight.”
“I just feel compelled to. Also, I enjoy battling against a good opponent. Maybe it’s my ego. Maybe I’m trying to figure out something.” He jokingly added, “Maybe I’ve just been watching too many Power Rangers episodes recently.”
Vlad chuckled in amusement. “Okay, then. Let’s go!”
The two fighters took a few paces apart, faced each other, and unleashed their killing intent at each other. Renegade’s killing intent was frightening, but Vlad’s was even more frightening. Renegade shivered, but he also smiled. “I’ve made people pass out with my bloodlust, but yours is intense too! It’s madness-inducing levels of intense! Still, I won’t back down without battling!” His eyes glowed with his signature blue energy and he laughed manically.
Renegade fired a blast of energy simply to test Vladislave’s endurance. The dragon seemed barely bothered, showing great endurance. He decided to try a different strategy for the time being. He concentrated in order to use his psychic power.
Vlad heard a sharp cracking sound. He realized that the windows in the nearby building were breaking. The already broken glass broke into a myriad of shards, some small like tacks and some long like daggers. The shards surrounded Vlad and flew toward him. However, the dream dragon used his own psychic power to cause the shards to freeze in mid-air. Then he summoned blue fire to melt the shards into nothingness.
He fired a blue fireball at Renegade, but the alien formed his energy forcefield to protect himself. “You handled a barrage of glass easily; let’s see how you do against a barrage of energy. Three thousand hits!”
Renegade fed more energy into his forcefield, then used the energy to fire three thousand energy darts at Vladislave. In order to show off his abilities, Vlad allowed the darts to hit him. While the barrage was forceful enough to make him feel sore, his bullet-proof skin prevented the energy darts from doing any significant damage.
Renegade smirked and exclaimed, “Well, goldang! You’re an even greater opponent than I imagined!”
Vlad smiled. “Good to hear.”
He surrounded himself with a barrier made of blue flame. He fired blue fireballs at Renegade, who countered them with his energy blasts. After a couple minutes of this, the sweating Renegade decided, “It’d be best to restrict this guy’s movements.”
He activated his thought clouding power to give Vladislave a vision of steel cables erupting from the ground and binding his limbs. However, a split second after realizing that Vlad didn’t seem to be affected, he hallucinated that steel cables erupted from the ground and bound his own limbs. The shocked creature realized that Vlad had somehow caused him to experience his own hallucination.
Since Renegade was the one who had induced the hallucination in the first place, he was able to end it and free himself from the mental bonds. However, before he could move, Vlad flew up to him and delivered a powerful kick. It was so powerful that Renegade flew back several meters and landed in a heap on the ground. However, he rose quickly. He glared, but then regained his determined smile. “Okay, then! You want to fight mano y mano, let’s do it!”
The two superpowered creatures engaged in physical combat for a couple minutes, showing their great skill. Vlad’s skin felt uncomfortable each time he made contact with Renegade’s energy forcefield, but he kept going. Renegade, on the other hand, seemed to be losing energy.
Finally Renegade leapt back to gain some distance and created a phoenix-shaped energy blast. The energy phoenix flew through the dragon and then flew back to be absorbed by Renegade. Vlad felt weaker; Renegade shuddered, but became more energetic. As Renegade scampered into a nearby tree, Vlad realized that Renegade had absorbed some of his energy. He became nervous as he remembered how the Good Tails Doll had drained his energy and defeated him. However, the angelic doll had drained more of his energy and left him much weaker. Vladislave decided to continue fighting, and to not let on that Renegade’s technique had managed to weaken him. He took out a crystal and used it to heal any damage Renegade had managed to do to him.
He teleported to the limb where Renegade was sitting. However, while Renegade had regained power, he seemed unwell and more concerned with reflecting than battling. He noted, “Nice crystal. If you’re going to warn, ‘You’d better not try that again!’ save your breath. I can only use my energy phoenix technique once per battle, so you don’t need to worry about me doing it again. The energy I absorb is converted to my own energy, but let me tell you, that energy of yours is unlike anything I’ve ever absorbed before. People I share my energy with are shocked that I can endure it. Now I know what that’s like. That energy of yours is so strange that it made me feel ill when I first absorbed it, but I’m feeling better now.” He stood up. “You seem to be feeling better. If you’ve gotten your second wind, so have I!”
He jumped down to the ground and reformed his energy forcefield. Vlad flew into the air, then landed and reformed his own blue flame barrier. They continued to battle, exchanging both energy blasts and physical blows, until Renegade dropped his forcefield and made an almost casual “cut the throat” motion to signal Vlad to stop.
Vlad caused the flames surrounding his hands to dissipate as he lowered his arms. “Are you giving up?”
“Would you think any less of me if I walked away?” Renegade asked in return.
“Not at all.” He nodded toward Renegade’s knuckles, with had become bruised due to his intense fighting. “You’re not some coward or quitter; you’re a very strong and determined fighter. You even kept going when you saw I could heal myself.”
“That’s good. After all, I said I wanted to fight, not that I wanted to fight until there was a clear winner. If you want to declare yourself the winner, go ahead. I really don’t care.” His body trembled from excitement. “Good battles excite me, but this meant more to me than winning or losing.”
“I have to say you were a tough opponent.”
“Thanks, you too! I could tell you were holding back. I could sense you have all sorts of powers you didn’t use. You were also patient and fair with me when you could have just attacked repeatedly without mercy. That’s the reason I’m quitting. If continuing the battle made you lose control and do something you didn’t want to do, it would hurt both of us. I think that’s one reason, maybe even the main reason, why we wanted to battle. Sure, the pride of fighting someone most people can’t even approach was a big factor, but we also wanted to see that we could fight without losing control.”
“Yes. Losing control is a terrible thing. I’ve trained so I wouldn’t lose control like I did in the past because it would cause horrible damage.”
“Yeah. Maybe this fight can help us realize that if we can refrain from losing control when battling each other, we can even refrain from losing control when battling ourselves. At least, that’s my feeling.”
He motioned for Vladislave to approach. Understanding what he wanted, Vlad approached and let Renegade lay a hand on his back. Renegade gently released energy into Vlad. The energy turned back into Vlad’s energy, giving him his strength back.
Renegade adjusted his jacket. “I’d be nice to stay and talk, but I told my ravens I’d be back.”
The dragon nodded. “It’s good to look after those close to you.” As the alien started to leave, he added, “We can meet again sometime. You don’t have to be alone.”
“Thank you for that. Just remember that you don’t have to be either.”
The two turned and walked off into the night.
By Raidra