Things had been going so well, for the time being. How could things have changed so drastically so fast?
Ever since the golem had fallen, only to be replaced by a tree serving for the same function, Steve and Squizgar had decided to go out into the world in the most crazy of ways. Squizgar was now a dragon, not just in heart but in full body and blood, and he put that body to use! Both he and Steve flew around the continent, Lucha-ing in magical pits and tackling the greatest of foes, showing everyone what it meant to be Lucha. After, they would walk through towns and cities afterwords in their social forms of half-elf and kitsune respectively to mingle and express merriment, giving drinks whenever they could. They were intent on spreading the word of Lucha as well as their own methodology on the joys of curiosity and chaos everywhere they could, and they got the attention one might expect from such a pair!
Though the other Lucha's had their place in New Hope, small groupings and factions of the Lucha order sprung up here and there far in the world where the two traveled. The two of them had been growing stronger in their travels too, as Squizgar got to experiment one way or another with all of the magic he could, and Steve tried every meat and flavour he could possibly find. He even managed to find score a dragoness for the night during one particularly enjoyable adventure!
It had all been going so well, thought Steve, until that one day...
He remembered it well, for the most part. The two of them had been exploring a wizard's tower, supposedly abandoned after countless years. They hadn't been expecting a fight, so the both of them were in their "social" forms, so to speak.
"
So! They say that apparently the fella who left this place also left some nifty trinkets behind!" The ecstatic summoner exclaimed, eager to find new and interesting discoveries.
"
Shame meat doesn't last as long as your trinkets do, hmm?"
"
Hoho, just you wait, we'll find a trinket that makes meat do just that, I'm sure of it! Remember the one we found last week that turned your scales rainbow color?"
"
I'd rather forget about that...ugh, do you know how utterly ridiculous I looked?"
"
You looked magical, I assure you~"
Continuing through the tower to the next floor, the room split into separate areas. Knowing he could be brought to his master's side at any second, Steve was okay with the two going to check different rooms. That is, until he heard his voice call from around the door.
"
Hoh! Check this out! This crystal's practically overflowing with all sorts of magic! It's got a neat lookin' inscription here too..."
the Kitsune simply shook his head, chuckling.
"
What have I told you about reading magical runes? Remember the ones that exploded in your face just last-"
But that was as far as he got, when he suddenly both heard and felt a soul-wrenching scream of pain coming from Squizgar! Using speed only a crazed eidolon could muster, Steve dashed to the other room, only to find Squizgar had vanished! In his place, there stood a cloaked and cowled figure, holding aloft a large crystal, the one that Squizgar must have mentioned! It was faint, but he could still sense his master's life force emanating from that crystal, only just...the cowled figure then turning to see Steve, mildly surprised and showing the faintest of smirks on his face.
"
So...the boy's pet's still here?...You two must be stronger than most...heh...no matter..."
Steve barely heard this. At this point, he had gone into a pure feral rage. There was one thing you didn't do, and it was fuck with a dragon's master. Letting out a snarl that quickly became a thundering roar, Steve immediately changed himself into his battle form, his wings sprouting wide and body growing larger than the room should fit, stone crumbling as shelves and books and other magical devices became strewn about as the room became 100% more dragon. This sudden change actually threw off the cowled figure for a moment, which was enough time for Steve to lunge out and tackle him back!
Tumbling back into a bookcase with a grunt, the figure looked up just in time to see Steve gasp out and stagger before his next assault. Looking down at his claw, which clutched the glowing crystal, he could feel it burning as the smell of scorched scales and flesh filled the air, Steve's claw reacting violently to the magic of the crystal! The cowled figure grinned, getting up to his feet as he began to laugh.
"
Hahaha! How am I not surprised that someone who would pull off something like -that- would be chaotic?! How's that crystal's protection feeling, eh? Why don't you just put it down you idiot! or are you -that- attached to that pathetic half-elf you call a master!"
Gritting through the pain, Steve looked back up, eyes glowing fiercely as he began to strike again. He could feel himself fading away already...his resilience was strong, but without his master there to keep him to this plane, he wouldn't be there for long! Yet still, he couldn't put down the crystal, even as he felt it begin to burn through his claw's muscle and touch bone, for it was -his- master, and he couldn't let Squizgar fall into someone else's hands! He leaped with one claw forwards, his head turning as he made to bite the mage in half. The next few moments passed by like an eternity...He could only just see the face under that cowl, grinning as his hands had just finished incanting his next spell, the mage leveling his gaze on the lunging dragon.
"
Or better yet...just leave."
the world burned with a bright flash of light, and everything went black. After a few minutes, Steve's head began to clear...where was he? Looking around, he recognized it instantly. He was back home...back in his plane...but, where was-?! Looking around frantically, He tried to find the crystal, but..no, it was gone! It had been in his hand, but it wasn't there anymore! In a panic, he stood up and began to look around as fast as he could, heart racing, but no luck! Gripping at the ground beneath, he turned his head up and let out a roar of pure rage and despair, amplified by being in his demi-plane to no doubt be heard from planes across. Squizgar was gone. Gone, and in the hands of some horrid mage, no less!
...
...Yes, that was how it had happened...he remembered it, even after all this time. He remembers the rage, the pain he'd felt, for years after the fact, stuck in his plane as he was. By the time he had calmed down enough for cognitive thought, he used his demi-powers to scry into the material plane, looking all around, but he couldn't find that tower again...either he could not scry it, or it had vanished. Despair set upon the great dragon like a heavy cloak, as he watched helplessly at time passing in the world he'd come to love, unable to do anything to get back again.
Years passed by, as he decided to pass his time looking over his fellow Lucha brothers, watching as their lives passed by, growing old, moving on...he watched as the names of Squizgar and Steve faded more and more, tales telling of how they mysteriously vanished off, some saying they'd gone to another world to teach Lucha to the galaxies at large, or some tales of how they'd become locked within an eternal Lucha match with the gods themselves. Time passed by though, and as it did, fact faded to legend, legend to fable, and more years than he could count slipped away.
Leaning back in a chair from his viewing portal looking into a world he hardly knew, the now older looking Kitsune thought about the past. His fur had greyed at the edges and his facial features looked weathered (though this was purely cosmetic, as Steve does not "age" at all). He remembered, drawing upon his memories, when he and Squizgar had first met...
...
Back then, he had no form, and his demi-plane had nothing to it. He was a white wisp in an expanse of blank nothingness, and he'd been that way for eons...until, that was, a burst of color sprang through, a young magical mind probing about in the expanse of the planes. Intrigued by this flash of color and emotions he had no words or names for, the wisp floated closer, in a way gazing through with his essence, and feeling young Squizgar's thoughts flood through him.
"
Hello?..." he heard, and somehow understood.
Yes, hello... that was a greeting... he could see that in the summoner's mind. Hello, he replied, hello hello hello. the wisp didn't talk beyond that, however. Immediately after, the summoner had burst forth an expression of joy at finally making contact, he began to spew forth excitedly all about himself and his life and his trials involving the ether. The wisp floated and listened all about the summoner, how he was never allowed to go to the proper schools for summoning, and had to learn all of his spells from the few books on the topic he could find.
All of the other kids in his rudimentary magic school were focusing on making fire and ice and making things float, but Squizgar only cared about looking beyond, and seeing the worlds beyond his own, and contacting the beings who called those places home. He claimed that the wisp was the first successful contact he'd made, save for when he'd accidentally "contacted" the plane of water and flooded his room by accident. From there, Squizgar said how he'd always been lonely, not having other spell casters like him who liked the things he did, which was part of why he wanted to learn about how to contact the other planes, to find someone, something, to talk to. He then went on to explain about how he absolutely loved dragons, practically fawned over them. They had great magical powers, but they were strong too, and older than time, some of the wisest beings!
The wisp had been surprised when Squizgar had asked his name. Name? A name for him? He? He was a he? perplexing for a moment, Squizgar finally decided to speak up.
"
Well, I had this pet newt when ah first got ta the school, and I named 'im Steve! I liked to pretend he could fly...aaaand accidenlythrewhimoutthecastlewindow...He din' fly so good..."
Squizgar seemed ashamed about this incident, and saddened as well from the loss he'd experienced. Steve...Steve, I like that name. I could fly for you, he thought. I could fly and be your Steve. the world out there sounded so beautiful to see, so full of...everything.
After a few days of practice, and Squizgar describing how dragons looked to Steve, he finally attempted his first ever summoning, to bring his new companion into this plane. Normally, it would have never worked for someone his age, but with Steve so willing to get into the world, it worked...barely. to be honest, they were both rather uneasy about how Steve ended up looking on that first summon. Never mind that he had no wings or anything, but he looked far from a normal creature...didn't even have all of the right limbs. But hey, Steve finally got through, and Squizgar had actually brought a friend into his world! Hugging his new, somewhat malformed friend, Steve spoke, though mentally, as the vocal cords hadn't been summoned quite right either.
"
So...this is world?..It looks nice..."
"
Haha, the world? this's mah room, silly! The world out there is even better!" A broad smile came upon the young lad's face. "
An' not only that, I'm gonna show it to ya! You n' me're gonna explore the world together, we'll be a team!"
...
Steve let out another sigh, shaking his head from his memories. Looking again to his viewing glass into the material plane, he saw again what had brought forth those memories to begin with. A young looking caster stood in a classroom at the Lucha school, being lectured by a professor. Over the numerous years, Summoning as a focus had dwindled, despite the legacy that once was. Steve supposed this was because few who knew of the Lucha's thought of Steve as anything other than a pure dragon outright. But this boy, he knew...Steve had watched as he pored over ancient records of his own perils and adventures from years past, delving further into the history than anyone had ever bothered to do years prior. He was fascinated by the records, and could tell what Steve truly was, and went after the magic of summoning unlike any other student he'd seen in longer than he could remember, perhaps equal to what his master had done when he had begun.
When he first saw that spark, Steve made contact. It was easy enough, with such a curious mind scanning out into the planes. From then on, Steve began to tutor the boy in his craft, helping him to improve, and getting him to learn all of the spells and traits that his master had once had. The young summoner was ecstatic to have -the- legendary "El Steveo Dios Mío!"(A name given in the textbooks as "what most people who fought him managed to say") as his teacher. He would be perfect...Exactly what he needed, to accomplish what he had to do...
For the rage that Steve had felt decades ago had not gone away, you see. Those years of burning hot rage and fury he'd felt, gradually cooling and fading away, had not gone to nothing. No, what had once been a burning fury had worked away and now lay in his mind a pure, tempered and forged weapon of cold, absolute vengeance. If there were ever something to be called "Justice", it was that determination that now rested firmly over his entire being. He was going back there...and while the chaotic broil that once fueled him had been replaced by a calm lawful need to make things as they were, he knew he was no less strong for it.
He took his time in looking around his demi-plane, at all of the things within. Not just meat, but paintings, magical items, toys and games, plants and fauna. There were treasures and trinkets saved away from past adventures, a ruby here, half of a once magical scepter there, all kinds of things, thousands of them, both real and created by his demi-powers, even a massive iron golem wandering about. Each of them, every bit of color and spark of magic and sound and taste, all thanks to his master. A master, a dear friend an companion, who he now feared he might not even recognize if he saw again, it had been so long. It made his resolve all the firmer.
Another year passed by, and Steve saw the summoner was finally ready. Still young, he was planning to make his first true summoning, to bring forth an eidolon. Shifting into his draconic form, unused for almost a millennium, and taking his Lucha mask from it's stand and putting it over his head, he knew he was ready. He looked back to the viewing portal. The young summoner, Zeff, was preparing for his final exam in the Lucha school, proof that he could advance to becoming a true spell caster, a summoner in his case. As Zeff focused intently, the older, experienced teachers watched. Zeff had always gone on about how he had the great Steveo teaching him, and was eager to bring him forth as proof to his claim. Feeling that familiar pull he hadn't felt in ages, Steve was brought forth!...to the sounds of upset and insult, the older teachers berating Zeff for "trying to tarnish the Lucha name with his prank".
Steve was confused, had his mask come off? Was something wrong? Or perhaps it was-...It was at this point that Steve noticed something odd...everyone seemed rather...big. Gazing down into the perfectly polished marble floor, he could see his reflection, and knew right away what was wrong. He was there alright, mask and all...but he had nothing that made him "him". No wings, small teeth, pitiful claws, none of his vivid scales or even his tail...and it hit him. Of course he'd look this way. Zeff was just starting out, he could never successfully summon Steve's full potential right away! In the next moment, he felt himself whisked back into his demi-plane as Zeff ran from the room in tears. It took some consoling on his part to calm down the young spell caster, and explain why things had gone the way they had. Once Zeff understood, he vowed to train, and practice, so that he could bring Steve back as he properly should be, in his true form. Steve would ensure of this, and nodded his approval mentally.
The years continued to pass by, but Steve did not request to be summoned back, not until he knew he'd be brought back in his full power, or at least as close as could be. The mage who had caused all of this, he knew he would still be alive. He could never find him, but he felt him, there all of those years, as if mocking him and his loss. He could wait...he had waited all of these years as it was, he could wait a number more, and once he was ready...he would let the world know.
(Begin listening now.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VncEb7uugGU )
On the day that he would finally be summoned back, he planned to perch atop the center of New Hope, on top of those laws of the city, and below out a roar that had been waiting hundreds of years to let loose. He knew full well of the City's non-hostility field, but he knew as well that it would not stop his call. For when he finally did spring forth from the ether atop that monument, his powerful and absolute roar would not be one of rage, of anger, or nay, even hostility. It would be a call, of pure, unbridled need for Justice. Justice sought, Justice demanded, after years and years of forced imprisonment for both himself and his beloved master. His voice would shake the very foundations of the earth if need be, and he would be Law incarnate, and he would not be denied.
Steve, the green dragon. Steve, the Lucha Brother, -would- get. his. master.
-back-.
And may the gods themselves be damned if they try to stop him.
