As the smile spread out across his face, his legs buckled in on themselves. Tank collapsed as well. It was a shame really, because if they'd been standing, they'd have noticed a shimmering, curved light sparkle yellow for a fraction of a second, all around the clubhouse, confirming the mantra that Tank had cast, worked. But at what cost?
* * *
Janice had been looking in the direction of the clubhouse hoping, however unlikely it was, that she'd catch a glimpse of Peter or Tank behind the ever so slightly tinted windows now that the policemen had let go of her. But so far, no such luck. As she continued to watch, an eerie yellow light flashed around the building before disappearing. Rubbing her eyes, unsure of what she'd seen, murmurs from those around her confirmed that others in the crowd had witnessed the strange phenomenon, or so all the talking and shouting seemed to indicate, over the sound of the fire engine negotiating the rows of parked cars in and around the entrance. Inside her mind she wished to God that Peter and Tank would come sprinting out from between the double doors of the entrance. Would her wish come true?
* * *
Groggy, both friends groaned and muttered as their brief spell of unconsciousness came to an end at exactly the same time. Tank was first on his feet, aware that the timer counting down in his mind showed forty eight seconds. Instantly he yanked Peter upright and the two of them headed clumsily out into the corridor and down the stairs, both clinging onto the handrail for dear life as they did so. Pushing through the double doors into the bar area, through the window they could just make out the bright red of the fire engine, attempting to do a three point turn in the car park. Pulling in long deep breaths, the two ran the length of the bar, both hitting the double doors of the entrance in front of them together. Shouts and cries went up from the crowd at the sight of the two of them emerging from the building they had previously thought empty. Tank muttered a few words in an ancient tongue which allowed them to safely pass through the fully completed shield. Some of the firemen and police officers headed towards them, but Tank and Peter both had the forethought to wave them back, which to their credit, they took heed of.
With everybody, including all the emergency services, corralled in a large group at the far edge of the car park, Tank and Peter dodged cars and vans, the muscles in their legs burning, their energy all but spent. In their heads the timer hit nineteen as the two of them pulled up in front of the large crowd. Tank collapsed on all fours, his breathing heavy and strained. Putting his hands behind his head in the hope of taking in more air as he breathed, Peter straightened and turned to face the clubhouse for the imminent arrival of one hell of an explosion. As he did so, just out of the corner of his right eye, he spotted something, something that sent goose bumps up his arms and cold shivers down his tail. RICHIE'S CAR!
'But she's already left,' was his first thought.
'But she can't possibly be in...' was his second.
With his energy waning, he reached out telepathically with everything that he had left. Sure enough, somewhere just below ground level, a dragon presence, all tucked in on itself lurked, along with that of a human. Grabbing his friend, he pulled him to his feet, something of a miracle in itself given the size difference between the two of them.
"She's in there Tank. Richie's in there!" he screamed into his friend's face.
Looking on in utter disbelief, Tank too could now get a sense of a dragon off in that direction. Joy at saving all these people turned to pain, guilt and soul destroying rage at the thought of losing his friend. Deep inside his mind, the timer hit eight seconds. Both friends had the same thought, once again, at exactly the same time. Closing their eyes, they sent out a mental picture, a warning, showing first the clubhouse, and then the imminent explosion, focusing all their efforts on honing in on their friend.
* * *
Against the bright, white walls of the clubhouse cellar, Richie broke off mid kiss, gasping sharply, and not because of the chilly, refrigerated air. A series of pictures crashed through her defences and assaulted her strong dragon mind, showing first the clubhouse and then a powerful explosion. Accompanying the images was a sense of utter urgency, desperation and despair from her two best friends. Mouth hanging open, stunned at what she'd just learned, at best, she had but a split second to act. As always she moved faster than she had any right to, her right hand grabbing the alea that she wore, the one that Peter had given to her, the one that had originally belonged to Mark Hiscock. Instantly she snapped it in two, while at the exact same time screaming in her mind, with all the willpower she could muster,
"Amplificare Magicus Nunc," which in much plainer language translated as 'Amplify Magic Now'. As a slight afterthought, one hundredth of a second or so later, she popped into existence what can only really be described as a rather primitive personal shield, something all dragons learn to cast in the very first part of their eleventh year in the nursery ring. In doing so, she had the presence of mind to extend it around Tim, who all the while had stood aghast, fearing he'd done something wrong. As the flickering green radiance from the shield encased the two of them, light and darkness encompassed them both, to the accompanying sound of HELL! The world as they knew it... ended!
* * *
Starting with a tiny, bright light on the upper floor, instantly it increased to blinding proportions. A rip roaring explosion of the kind which, before today, the earth had rarely seen, tore apart the fairly new clubhouse, shredding every last part of it. The noise was brutal. Violently the earth shook. Fire and magical energy of every different colour swirled inside the invisible barrier that Tank had crafted. On finding no way out to the sides, the raging torrent of destruction flooded downwards into the ground, and upwards into the sky. It must have been more than three miles into the air before the cylinder of energy exploded outwards into the relative safety of the atmosphere, at first running over the sides like a cup full to the brim, being constantly topped up, and then forcing its way across the sky, like thunder clouds in a storm. From out of nowhere, a harsh, churning breeze snaked across the heavens, scattering the deadly particles throughout the atmosphere, reducing their concentration to a safe level.
On the ground things were very different. Some of the kinetic energy from the blast had been forced downwards by the mantra, creating a crater the exact diameter of the clubhouse, nearly a quarter of a mile deep. Smoke and fire raged up and out of the fissure, the steamy surface of the bedrock surrounding it looking like an alien landscape from the future. Nothing physical remained of the clubhouse itself. No windows, doors, bricks, furniture... NOTHING! Every last molecule had been obliterated on impact.
Luckily for the two dragon friends, Tank's complicated mantra had contained the deadly psychic wave that was a side effect of all the laminium bombs. That too had been directed harmlessly up into the sky and down into the ground. No part of the dragon domain lay directly beneath the sports club, so no dragons were affected.