Destined: The Six

44. The Moment You've Been Waiting For

          August landed Loraine as gently as he could next to the Florida juvenile hall. If it hadn't been a juvenile hall, Tamara would have thought it was a rather impressive place. The hall was at least four stories, and the stone architecture, complete with gargoyles and little curly edges, was something to admire. Of course, this was a detention center for people who had done things like what Tamara had allegedly done--committed arson or worse. At least, if there was a worse crime than arson, like making horrible but catchy music or something like that. Tamara wasn't sure about how crimes were prioritized.

          As Loraine landed, "she" sent a cloud of dust flying. With a cough from the dust, Tamara stepped out of her humble cabin and took another good look at the grand but depressing building. She wished that someone would save all those perfectly good gargoyles for a Victorian mansion or something like that, since they didn't really fit with the whole "detention center" vibe. Tamara had a quick that that perhaps the gargoyles came alive to protect the detention center, and the thought stayed, as Tamara had just been challenged in her dreams by a gnarled dragon with giant rock claws.

          "Let's get into that place," Tamara hollered to August. The Spanish teen nodded, and followed her in to the front door. Standing right on front of them were two guards, armed with what looked like rifles. Tamara wished her armor to her, and August activated his. Upon seeing them suit up, the guards simply stepped out of the way, keeping a straight face. "They must know when to let a Destined in or something," Tamara concluded.

          "Or maybe they're like puppets, made by Lacero, built to not let anyone in or out except us," August responded as the two walked through the door. Tamara silently admitted that she liked August's idea better. 

          Inside was wall-to-wall cells. There seemed to be a good amount of chatter, even for a four-story building. In front of the two was a catwalk, spreading in a sort of ring around the hall, as to get to the cells, along with stairs in every corner. Below that, in the center of the catwalk ring, was something that looked like a cafeteria, with doors along the walls. The doors seemed like they were labeled, so Tamara assumed they led to other important places in a juvenile hall. 

          As soon as the two heroes walked in, a voice came in on the intercom. "Attention," the voice spoke. "Everyone must evacuate the building. This is not a drill." The voice repeated the message as all the delinquents in the building ran out of the mess hall, where they must have been gathered, to somewhere below where August and Tamara stood. There must have been a door for evacuation below them, otherwise there wasn't any way the delinquents could really evacuate. Tamara turned to her Machinist's Bronze-covered friend. "Why do you think they're evacuating?" she asked.

          "Because of that." August pointed to the floor of the mess hall, a circular center of which sank and began to split in a camera lens kind of fashion. Out of the hole in the ground, a large blue crystal, surrounded by a golden ring, slowly rose. "The pylon!" Tamara shouted, then carelessly leaped over the railing into the mess hall. She ran as fast as she could, for she didn't really know where Lacero was, and she didn't want him to catch her without dragon power. As she was halfway to the pylon, she heard a loud rumbling, like the noise of air parting in front of a really fast dragon.

          Tamara picked up speed. If she didn't make it in time, Lacero would rip her to shreds. Just like a normal person, Tamara couldn't really afford being ripped to shreds. She reached the pylon, and went for a hardcore punch. The pylon shattered before her knuckles like a large wad of tissue paper. A storm of dragon voices roared with pride, and Tamara's armor shattered into pieces. "Look away!" she managed to say to August, before her skin turned to  gleaming, fiery red scales and she grew a tail.

          Tamara sprouted grand, red wings, with claw tips at their joints. Her tail had a diamond-shaped tip, and her chewed-up fingernails grew to claws that were harder than rocks and sharper than a two-edged sword. Her normal human teeth turned to carnivorous, killer teeth. Her flat face extended into a reptilian snout, and most of all, her body grew at least ten sizes in those ten seconds. Tamara the Scale-Shifter, as she would later be called, roared in confidence as shot a molten beam of fire at the ceiling. The rock that she hit melted immediately. Tamara smiled with glee, as he had seen Redscar do multiple times.

          As she finished her transformation, Lacero tore through the wall like it was made of evaporated water. Tamara turned and struck with one claw, and sparks flew as she made contact with the cruel, gnarly dragon. Lacero, in response, grabbed her by her long, snake-like neck and flew them both through the ceiling. The dragons continued their battle in the sky.

          Tamara found almost immediately that Lacero's claws could probably tear through a thick sheet of solid diamonds without even striking a cleavage point(which is the point in which any crystal, even diamonds, can break smoothly and easily). She realized that if she wanted to live to be a dragon another day, she would have to dodge his claws. She did so, and found her molten fire beam to be her best weapon. Tamara remembered what Redscar had taught her, and fought like a dragon instead of a man. She used tooth and claw to bite and strike, instead of punching and kicking. Every few moments, when she felt the fire return, Tamara would shoot a molten beam at the villainous dragon.

          Tamara struck, and struck again, again and again. She spat fire in Lacero's mouth, bit his throat, and clawed at his wings. Eventually, she struck gold. A piece of Lacero's rock-hard armor, right in the middle of his torso, fell off. Tamara seized this new opportunity and stabbed a claw right in the new chink. 

          Lacero, with a cry of pain, turned to ashes in front of her. As soon as Lacero's new ashes hit the ground, Tamara heard a crowd of dragons cheer for her. Tamara landed, remembering that Sholin the Wise had told her that dragons, male or female, were excellent cheerleaders. She turned back into human form, and saw that August was standing in front of her, gaping in amazement.

          "I won," Tamara understated before she passed out.