Destined: The Six

45. We're Glad You Came, Tamara the Scale-Shifter

          Jeremiah awoke to see the others looking down on him. "Morning," he muttered breezily, then quickly rose to his feet. As he looked around, he saw that the shelter that his very loyal friends had taken him to was different from the last one. "Our last shelter was destroyed by Castle," Heather explained, seemingly reading his mind. Jeremiah nodded, Then picked up his spear. One thing about this spear, aside from the fact that its head could split diamonds and it electrocuted everything it touched, shocked him: No matter what, it stayed shiny, even through the dust storms that Castle kicked up in this broken city.

          The others broke from their tribal circle of watching Jeremiah sleep(A bit creepy, but they had the right to, considering the eventful events that had taken place with them), and they all began to calmly talk amongst each other. After all, now that they were sure no one had died, there was nothing to be afraid of. Jeremiah was most interested in Magnum Aureus, so he went to talk to Heather. She was still kneeling down next to where Jeremiah had lay, staring down into infinite space, as if looking there would make something appear.

          "Hey," Jeremiah said to catch her attention. Heather snapped out of it and looked directly at her friend. "Hello, Mister Blackout," she responded, then smiled. "Hey, that totally works, not just because you faint more often than a Roman demigod, but also because you're the master of shadow! I'm calling you that now."

          Jeremiah smiled, as that was a great idea. "Plus, it has a nice ring to it. 'Mister Blackout,'" he spoke in a movie-voice tone, spreading his hands out in front of him in a showy way. He sat down next to Heather. "By the way, speaking of power, I want to know more about Magnum Aureus."

          Heather frowned in concentration, trying to remember what she had most likely read. "Well, most of Magnum Aureus is self-explanatory. I remember Flora said something about the Three Golden Beasts, and how they became especially strong when they truly worked together. I didn't really understand what it meant at the time, but then I read it in a Wizardess Arts book about this 'fusion' thing. I tried it out, following the instructions closely, and...Bam, Magnum Aureus, a furry monstrosity that can punch powerful super villains through solid walls. Cool, huh?"

          Jeremiah agreed heartily. A giant golden beast made out of a magic bear, tiger, and lion sounds like something that, in general, would be pretty cool. Suddenly, a loud roaring resonated through Jeremiah's brain. "What was that?" he shouted, holding his aching ears. There was a loud woosh, then the air began to grow in heat. Thinking that Castle or something equally horrible was coming, the blessed Destined armed themselves for battle. Instead of Castle, however, a dragon came in through the window behind Jeremiah. Everyone gasped and jumped, spinning towards the crash that had resulted from the dragon breaking through the window.

          It was a good thing that the dragon was nothing to be afraid of; rather, it was simply Tamara in dragon form. She morphed back into her human shape and looked around at her new surroundings. "Nice place," she said, most likely hiding sarcasm. Dylan snorted, then pointed at Belle. "That's what she said." Tamara shook her head. "How have you guys been holding up without moi?" she asked. There was a clear answer to her rather pretentious question, and that answer was "Not very well, to be honest. We're glad that you came, Tamara the Scale-Shifter." However, none of the blessed heroes said such a thing.

          "We've done...fine," Heather answered after a bit of hesitation. There was certainly no way she was going to admit that they hadn't been doing well and that they were glad that Tamara the Scale-Shifter had come. To do so would be to admit weakness, and that was not what teenagers, especially not Destined, did at all. Tamara snorted. "You don't sound or look fine. Jeremiah's eyes are at half mast, so it's clear that he just passed out. He must have had to combine with Marionette recently, which implies that something serious happened. Admit it, you're glad I came."

          The four non-dragon Destined looked at each other briefly, then resigned to Tamara's honest suggestion. "We haven't been doing very well, to be honest. We're glad that you came, Tamara the Scale-Shifter," Jeremiah sighed sleepily. Tamara looked at them all with a smug smirk. "Well, then," she concluded, "What's going on? Are we going to fight Castle, or are we taking a more defensive strategy?"

          The others explained the plan to Tamara. "The goal is to stop Castle from getting out of this city. Whenever he flies, he creates a tornado, so we'll know if he tries to leave. So far, he's only tried to attack us, but we're all still alive, so that plan hasn't panned out yet. Now that you're here, and you can transform into a dragon, we can probably do some more serious damage to Castle," they told her in turn, then asked where August was. 

          "He's still looking for his pylon. Don't worry, he'll join us eventually, but right now, let's make sure that Castle doesn't terrorize anyone but us. That's the plan, right?" Tamara switched to serious mode, mildly surprising everyone. However, Jeremiah was glad that she was taking things seriously enough. "Right," he said, shaking the sleepiness out of himself. Castle could come at any moment, and Jeremiah needed to be alert. 

          Jeremiah was about to say something else, but he suddenly broke into a coughing fit. Spots danced in his eyes as he fell to the ground. Heather ran to him first, and put a hand to his heart. "You've combined with Marionette too many times, and too often. You need to rest for longer than three minutes," she diagnosed. Jeremiah wanted to protest, but he couldn't stop coughing for long enough. And to make it worse, Heather added this: "I don't think there's anything I can do. Man, I hope August gets here quick."