“Dada?” Abby asked, pulling at its clothing.

“Oh it's nothing.” Etrius said, looking back to the road. “I thought that I saw a funny looking bird.”

“Ah.” She said looking up in the sky.

“So, what should we get for your mom?” Etrius asked. “I was thinking about silk sheets and a blanket.”

“Au?” She asked.

“Yes, but they keep their place warm, so the cold shouldn’t be a problem.” It said.

“Aubu.” She said.

“I suppose that there is nothing stopping us from getting both.” It said. “So, silk sheets and a weighted blanket sounds good?”

“Ba!” She said.

"Is there anything else we need?" It asked.

"Wo?" She asked, not expecting to be put onto the spot like that.

"I'm joking, we should be good on everything." It said.

"Ba." She said, feeling deceived.

 

Abby sulked for only a few seconds, but continued to look around in wonder. As she did, the two entered a store that looked like it sold what they needed. The automated doors didn't open, but Etrius and Abby phased through them. If Abby noticed, she didn't say anything as she was distracted by the smells of the store. Walking the isles the two quickly found what they needed, however, before they could leave, Etrius noticed something very troubling.

Watching through their satellite, those in the surveillance room watched the Italian transports exiting the Mont Blanc Tunnel before meeting up with a French group waiting for them. This rapid response force truly did live up to its name and arrived in France in slightly over an hour. As three soldiers exited the vehicle, the red situation phone rang. Only one person could call this phone, the president of the United States, who also happened to be the leader of the American council. Something urgent came up to have him call them. Bracing himself, the director picked up the phone.

 

"Hello." The director said.

"We just want you to know that what is about to happen is not our fault." Said an unfamiliar voice, one that could not be identified as male or female. "If you have anyone in Europe, tell them to seek shelter."

"What that-" The director started. "Who is this?!"

"The ones you're watching in France." It said. "We would stop them, but if we tried, the damage would not be localized to this continent only."

"And what exactly is going to happen?" He asked.

"They are calling a dragon, and it will reside on your moon. We're sorry in advance, and we are going to go now." The voice said before the call was cut off.

 

For a moment, the director stood in silence. The others in the room looked at him. Not hearing the call, they looked at him, confused as to why he started yelling into the phone. Knowing that there was no quick explanation, he didn't even give himself time to sigh.

 

"Send out a warning to the global community, code red!" He said. "Tell the Europeans to take shelter, get the global defenses online, and get the French to stop whatever they’re doing!"

"Sir what happened!?" One of the men asked, sounding the alarms.

"They fucked up!" He said, not exactly sure as to what was going to happen.

Far away, just outside the French side of Mont Blanc tunnel, two groups of military personnel were exchanging information. Though they weren't exactly sure what they were after, they knew that it was something that the Illuminati went out of their way to warn them about. Though from their recommendation, they shouldn't try to confront it. Because of this, they were to evacuate the surrounding towns and prevent anyone from intruding. As for the French government, they were attempting to use some type of weapon that was above the paygrade of any person on the strike teams to ask about.

On paper, this job was easy, however who knew how things would go. Suddenly the Italian strike team suddenly got a warning. With his eyes wide open, he dropped the tablet with the warning.

 

"Everyone mount up!" He yelled. "We're leaving, they fucked up!"

"What happened? What do you mean they fucked up?" The leader of the French team asked.

"They fucked up!" The Italian leader said, already running to his transport.

 

Though hesitant to follow their example, sirens from the Mont Blanc tunnel sounded out, along with every communication device in the area. Wanting very much not to die, they bravely drove into the tunnel and hopefully out of harm's way.

 

Early in the afternoon, in southern France a bright light flashed out as a dragon appeared. Within seven seconds, 40% of all organisms capable of sentience, from the alps to the English channel, from north eastern Spain to central Prussia was dead. As the dragon roared, all non mechanical electronics in southern France, Switzerland, and northern Italy failed within ten seconds of the dragon’s arrival. As the dragon rose into the air, 30% of the remaining population in the affected area became hostile unaffected individuals. Upon leaving the atmosphere and entering low Earth orbit, nearly 50% of all space based infrastructure failed. Twenty seconds after its arrival, the dragon took up residence on the moon, destroying all lunar habitations and orbiting satellites and stations.

As for the device that called the dragon, it along with the surrounding ten miles of land it was on, was destroyed leaving only a crater with a pulsing blue mold behind. For the next two days, as the dragon terraformed the moon’s surface to its own liking. Many who looked into the moon lost themselves and became affected similarly to those in the European exclusion zone. Three nuclear attacks, consisting of a total of 814 high and low yield nuclear missiles, mainly from the North American nations, targeted the dragon.

Though the attacks failed to eliminate the dragon, the missiles ejected enough materials to hide the moon in radioactive dust storms. With the dragon no longer visible, the spread of those afflicted by the “Dragon Sickness” all but ceased. Those who were already affected, remained so, completely hostile to those who were unaffected.

“Au?” I said, confused.

“Is something wrong?” Dad asked.

“Ah…” I looked around confused.

 

I was very confused. One moment I was sitting in a pushcart in the middle of a store, the next I was in dad’s arms as she opened up the door to the house. Not only that, but I was confused as to whether we were on earth or not. Surely we had to, because we were just in an air conditioned building, and now we aren’t. Ever since my rebirth, I haven’t seen anything close to air conditioning. Mom’s house didn't even have that, and she’s probably the richest person I’ve seen. As for heating, everyone relied on fireplaces. Just what in the world is going on?

Looking up at dad, I saw her looking at me. Dad is suspicious. Or at least I think he is. What does dad even do? I wanted to ask her, but for some reason whenever I ask important questions, he doesn’t understand me. Surely it’s just a coincidence. But just in case…

 

“Da! Do bo mo?” ‘Dad, do you love me?’

“Of course I love you.” Dad said, stroking my hair.

“Wo bo bo?” ‘What do you do?’

“Aren’t you just adorable?” Dad said, pinching my cheek.

 

Yep. That was intentional. Dad is suspicious. I looked at him with suspicion and she looked worried.

 

“Oh, I know.” Dad said, with an idea in mind.

 

Pulling out a white rectangle with a sort of glass screen, dad handed it to me. Though since I was still in my human form, I had trouble grabbing it. I had seen these before. Those people that kept me locked up had them and they had like videos and games on them, but I’ve never held one. It was heavier than I thought and the back was a little wet. Turning it over, I thought that I saw blood, but upon blinking, there was nothing there. Did dad always have this? Curious as to where she got it, I looked at her with questioning eyes.

 

“Oh, I stol- it was a gift.” Dad said, placing me on the carpet by the fireplace.

“Ba!” You stole it! You definitely stole it!

“But that doesn’t matter.” Dad said.

“Ba!” It very much does!

 

Though now that I think about it, I have stolen, killed, and eaten people before. So theft of a single light slab doesn’t matter. As I thought about this, dad did something weird. He took off my necklace, which isn’t weird, but for a moment I was sure that she had split into two. Before I could ask however, the dad that split off from dad, transformed into black sand and disappeared into the floor. Another weird thing that dad isn’t hiding from me, but doesn't talk about. Well whatever! We already got mom’s presents and I got a light slab! I wonder if this thing has the falling blocks game.