They entered the next room and met head on with the dragon.
It was huge, the room also being bigger to accommodate it, with shiny silver scales that shone orange when reflecting the light of the torches. It also had big blue eyes that widened as it noticed the strangers who had invaded its lair. It rose up from its lying position, stretched out its wings, looking even bigger now, and growled.
Dust got right in front of Mel and assumed a defensive position behind their shield, waiting for the dragon's first move.
The dragon swung its claw at them. Dust pushed Mel backwards and flew up with amazing speed. The claw hit the shield, bending it like trash in a single hit. Dust swung the knife at the creature's arm, but it did nothing besides a noise of metal clashing. Noticing the beast had open jaws close to them now, Dust turned and flung the wrecked shield on its face, trying to get the other side of its head, where Mel couldn't see them anymore.
Mel watched in awe and fear. Neither of them had any hope of damaging that big thing, but Dust looked so skilled up there... maybe they would find a weak spot? If so, then what Mel could do?
It was a mistake to get Dust hopeful for a superpower. Mel's special skill wasn't at all useful for this. Still, if Dust was up close to a beast's jaws and still trying their best, Mel had no excuse to not try everything.
So the next time the dragon launched a claw at Dust's direction, it was distracted by a rock hitting its belly. It quickly looked around to find the attacker, but saw nothing. That was Mel's superpower after all, camouflage.
The pebbles Mel was flinging while running around weren't doing any damage, but luckily they were enough for the creature to starting completely ignoring Dust. It dropped its head low, searching the cave floor attentively. It was the perfect chance for Dust to strike a weak point.
Except... Dust wasn't doing that. They were floating close to the dragon's head, and Mel could somewhat hear their voice, but not make out the words. Why even make out any words, why would they be talking.
They hadn't given up on fighting, had they?
That couldn't be it, that shouldn't be it. Mel had been so scared through all of this and sucked it up only because Dust did so too and it had been fun and it would be everyone's freedom but if Dust was going to give up then it had all been a waste!
"Why are you wasting time just stab it already!" Mel lashed out.
And screaming kinda defeats the point of camouflage.
The dragon reached out and Mel couldn't run in time, only kick and yell while caught in the beast's grasp.
The struggle didn't last long though, because Dust let out a scream so loud it was distorted by the speakers, and flung themself at high speed directly at beast's eye.
"Ow!" it roared, sounding surprised, and loosening its grip on Mel, who squirmed out of it.
Dust seemed to have barely seen any of it, they just kept slashing at the eye, now closed. "Don't hurt them," they screamed, "I'm your opponent, you can't hurt them, I brought them here so you can't hurt them!"
"Dust," the dragon was answering? And sounding kinda panicked too. "Dust, stop, Dust, it's me, of course I'm not going to hurt you Dust, you were the one who started fighting. Dust, listen to me."
Dust must have eventually listening, because they stopped, and went limp, arm and knife just dangling by their side as they watched the creature.
Then they screamed again.
"Wait, what?" Mel couldn't help but say it out loud this time.
"And I don't believe I've met this invisible friend of yours before," the dragon said, much calmer now, as it -they?- turned to Mel's direction.
"Oh yeah." Dust flew down to Mel's side, and Mel turned off the camouflage. "This is Mel, we met not long ago in that same spot of always! They are from the institute too. And I had no clue they could turn invisible, that was your superpower? That’s awesome!"
Mel chuckled, quite proud of having impressed Dust despite not doing much, and then quietly waved hello to the dragon, not understanding what was up but deciding to play it cool. At the same time, Mel couldn’t help noticing that by the pronouns they had used, Dust really had no clue about Mel's gender. Neat. But it wasn't time to think about that, was it?
"It seems that there are many kids in that institute. It also seems that you attract them somehow, Dust." Dust only laughed at that. Mel wondered which other kids did they know. The only ones Mel know there were their own siblings, and none of them had escaped outside. "So, you made a new friend and immediately decided to drag them to a forbidden and dangerous place, is that it?"
"Uh, that's," Dust stuttered, "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, I just wanted to see the dragon! I knew you were doing something here and I wanted to help, but I know you don't think I'm ready yet, so I had to prove to you that I could withstand the heat and, and," they lowered their head, "then I got Mel involved and I wanted to show something cool, but instead I," Sob. Oh no, they were crying. "I, I had no idea how to..."
Their voice died down. The dragon patted their back with one of their claws, which still looked kind of scary really, but Mel could see it was a gentle move.
"Uh, Dust," Mel tapped them, trying to show them a smile, "you know I'm okay, right? I had fun and everything, you really looked cool with that knife all the way up there." It wasn't a lie. To Mel, Dust was kind of a superhero already. A silly, idiot superhero who shouldn't be crying.
Dust gave a little nod and hugged Mel with such strength that it felt like a tackle. Mel hated that they started crying too, but it had been a weird day and too much had happened. Way too much. They vaguely noticed that the dragon had started to pat their back too.
"Kids?" the creature called. "Maybe we should talk upstairs. Dust, I don't know what you did to the suit, so I'm not sure how long you can stay here."
"Yeah, and I can't wipe my tears with this helmet..." they whined, though the airy sound after might have been a laugh. Mel hoped it was. Dust then pointed to the dragon. "You coming up with this body, or...?"
Aaaand Mel was back in the "wait what" stage of things.
"No, it's too big to even go out. Also, it's not finished yet. That's why I didn't tell you about it," said the dragon, lying down and closing their eyes as if going to sleep.
The entire cave seemed to shimmer for a moment, and then change. In place of the torches that lit the place now there are simple orange lights.
"Wait, the whole cave was a hologram?" Dust said.
"Many have called my security lax, but the point still remains that I don't want to set any intruders on fire."
That was said by the dragon's voice, but it didn't come from the dragon's body. It came from the farthest corner of the room, where a door Mel hadn't seen before had opened. From there came a small cylindrical robot with wheels and a simple blue visor at the top.
Dust didn't seemed at all surprised by that, and just started talking to them, "So the whole thing in the pathway, with the flames and all, was that all hologram too?"
"Yes, Dust, in no moment did I intend to fry my own kid, or anyone else's kid," the robot said, spinning their visor between Dust and Mel, and Mel couldn't take it anymore.
"Wait, wait, wait, what is going on, Dust?" they asked, "I thought you were exploring this place for the first time, but you actually knew the dragon, and know this robot, and they have the same voice, and, wait was the dragon a robot, is that it?" It did look metallic. Mel felt stupid to only think of it after losing their cool.
"Sorry, sorry, I'll explain. I wasn't lying to you, I swear," Dust said. "You're right, the dragon was a robot, I really didn't know that, okay? I kinda started suspecting it when we finally saw it, but," they shifted uncomfortably, "I panicked when the claws came, and I just thought I had to defeat it before it hurt us. I really didn't think any of this well, sorry."
Mel didn't know what to answer. It hurt to know it wasn't a real dragon and that nothing would change, but it wasn't the first false alarm they had ever got, was it? And Dust hadn't tricked them, so it was fine.
"I apologize too," the robot said, "I should have just talked to you from the start, but, I did get curious as to how you'd act in that situation. I suppose I'm still not as optimized for parenting as I am for watching."
Dust flew to hug the bot. "No way, you're the best! I mean, the flames, the talking, you did all just like that movie we watched the other day, didn't you? That's so cool, were you really going to let me play here when it was ready?"
"Yes, I thought you'd have fun, though the overheating became a bigger problem than expected. I'll work on it, okay? And you have to promise me that you won't try to face beasts with kitchen utensils anymore."
Dust turned their head away. "Uh, yeah, sorry, it was the best I could find. Can we fix that lid or...?"
"No, I think it's beyond repair. I need to tweak the control on those claws." The robot turned to Mel again. "You're really not hurt, are you, Mel?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Looking back at it, Mel had been so scared to be caught by the dragon, they didn't realize its grasp was pretty weak for its size. The thing wasn't trying to hurt them at any moment, they were the kids who panicked. "So, you're a robot, but you're also Dust's parent, and you build other robots? Is that what's going on?"
"Basically, yes. You can call me Meta, I'm an AI made to study and simulate the galaxy's lifeforms."
"Including the rarest ones, like me," Dust chimed in, pointing to themself, "and dragons! Those are the ones we are looking for now."
"Yes, dragons have been elusive so far. The robot is based on a speculative model only."
"That's cool. My family's been looking for dragons too, for a long time, since we descend from them. My sister is super cool 'cause she looks a lot like them, she even has wings!"
"Seriously? I wanna meet her!" Dust said.
"I... have heard the stories about the chamedrakos' genealogy, yes," said Meta, not as enthusiastic as their kid, "though I never found evidence. I didn't know the institute had someone like that."
"Yeah, she's a bit sick so she can't go out much."
"Ah, that sucks, I guess it's kinda like Damian..." said Dust, "You sure you're okay there? There sure seems to be a lot of people getting sick there."
"I'm fine, I take my medicine every day so nothing's gonna happen," Mel answered. "Who's Damian?"
"I told you I had other friends from there, remember?" Dust said, "Damian was one of them. But, some time ago, he kinda uh, freaked out while we were playing." They rubbed their neck with one of their hands. "He was acting really weird and said he was sick, so he went back, and I haven't seen him since then." They turned to their parent. "You did ask about him there, didn't you, par?"
"Yes I did. They didn't tell me much, though. It's a private institute, they don't reveal much to the public. I suppose I will have to escort Mel back there now, so, I'll try to find something out."
"I can try looking for that guy too if you're worried," Mel added. "I never heard of a Damian there before, but I can ask."
"Thanks, Mel." Dust said. "And you take care too with your medicine, I wanna play with you again! You know, with an actual good plan next time."
No promises. Mel had no clue in how much trouble they'd get from sneaking out this time, it would probably be way harder to do it again. Maybe Meta could talk it out with the other adults? Who knows.
But Mel had just offered Dust help, so there was no backing out of it. They wanted to come back and play more with that weird family of two people and deadly inventions.
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