Jake patrolled over the rooftops of a slumbering metroplis,from where he was he could see the lit torch of the Statue Of Liberty sprinkling fragments of scattered gold light onto the dark ocean bay.The corners of his mouth rose slightly in a smile,unusual pride filled him to be named after his nation.

I don't think we'll ever know how lucky we have it here in this...

A minor shift in the wind brought him to attention,the other sounds around and below him sank into insignificance.There was only one sound that he picked out that was important.Jake started circling in mid-air clockwise.

The quick scurrying of feet somewhere unseen reached his ears and so he paused.When he did this,the noise abruptly mimicked his halt.Jake tensed but kept proceeding to turn,to keep the treading up.His plan worked and yet he could not zero in on the source.Was someone just toying with him?

"Listen,pal.I can think of a thousand better things I could be doing at this moment then just worryin' about some freak who has to hide in the dark."

Nothing but dead silence followed his tyrade,slightly infuriating him.He was the American Dragon who just happened to have twenty minutes left with his partolling before going home to study.Getting paranoid wasn't helping.

Jake waved a dismissful claw over his shoulder before turning to go home.

"Hee-yah!"A rough battle cry screeched.

With only seconds to react,Jake ebbed back but felt something slither right around his waist.The person on the other end jerked back to give the coils a firm pull and gave a broad swing sideways,sending them both down onto the top off a nearby house.Jake sealed his eyes,bracing himself for contact.

He thought the stranger would hit it as he did;he thought wrong.The person merely dug their foot into his side and used the body of an unwilling dragon to break their own fall.As soon as they landed,Jake felt the tightening of the rubbery ropes and saw his attacker step back to admire his knotting work.

"When I get out of here,"he muttered under his breath,struggling restlessly.

"You won't,the cords contain phenix hair and an added chemical that goes as far as to neutralise the dragon completely.Rendering them no more of a threat then a kitten."He heard a smart aleck type of teen girl speak to him.

Jake turned his head toward her,his cheek tingled with stinging blisters and his left eye was badly scraped.From his good eye he made her out to be a tall,slender girl dressed in deep maroon.He couldn't see her eyes but there was her voice.It sounded familiar.Suddenly,Jake sensed another presence.

"I thought we agreed you'd move on to the Canadian clan,"The voice was female as well but not as instantly confident,it sounded even more devious.

"As if,"she replied spiritedly."This dragon is mine,Huntswoman.The clan in America is good and gone.You know what they say,first come first serve."

The teenager turned back to look at him as she said this.Jake didn't notice as the other Huntsclan member approached,his focus was on the girl.They locked eyes and it wasn't until she smirked beneath her mask that he saw.

"Rose?"He asked softly,hopefully.

His hope was diluted when he saw the cleverness in these blue eyes,it may have been that she resembled Rose in her suit but this was someone else who had never known him.Before anything else happened,her eyes shifted to wickeness and he saw the girl's two bare hands.There was no birthmark.

" Tu averiarse mosoco,hand the dragon over or I will take it from you!"

The threat held a deep accent that hit base and drove Jake straight out of his daze.He watched as the two turned to engage in arguement.Something about who was more entilted.Jake took advantage of his only opportunity.

Shoving the fact that the look-alike may have been Rose's twin into the far reaches of his mind,Jake sharply inhaled and spewed a roil of flame aimed for her back.The two merely ducked and carried right along with the clash.

You've gotta be effing kidding me,they didn't even slip me a dirty look!

"All right!"Huntsgirl 2 announced after a while,her rather irritatingly peppy attitude still there but toned down."It's obvious we both have two points."

The Hispanic woman tilted her head forward,suggesting a nod."Correct."

"And we both can't have him,right?"

"Uh..."Jake spoke up."Can't I have a say in this-?"

"Quiet!"They snapped at him in unison.Jake rolled his eyes but didn't utter a word,women feuding over anything was something males just stayed out of.

"Hmph,dumb Dragon."she placed her hands on hips."Now as I was going to say,nothing but violence is going to end this arguement.Me versus you."

"But a compromise is another option,"Huntswoman added thoughtfully.

"Your supplies are getting exhausted,"The girl said in a taunting note.

"Lessen your cockiness,young lady.Your allies cannot be supplying you.We may have differing stories on our clan's demise but the two of us know very well that all of the Huntsclan's connections are severed.In both our realties."

"But together..."Huntsgirl said slyly.

"But together...what're you doing?!"

Huntsgirl did a one-hundred eighty by jarring her sharp,black weapon into the cords that bound him.The tip cut slighty into Jake's side but he did not take a moment to spare in wondering why he was free.He simply took his chance at liberation and took off at lightening speed,not giving one glance.

Rose's twin,Jake couldn't help letting that one sentence pass right through his mind.The Huntsman didn't take Rose,he took that girl.I did it to her.

He looked over at the two pursuing him,it now evident that they were just releasing him to either hunt him down this way or for Jake to lead them to his family.That's what they wanted,they had some revenge scheme on him.

This girl can't know about me making that wish but she does seem to know about the Huntsclan's destruction,He turned to the other who was in closer pursuit.But what's her excuse?Jake didn't see Huntsgirl coming up fast on his left.I forget.They're Huntsclan.They don't need excuses.

"Argh!"He cried out,the newest ropping aggressively twisting his wrists.

"Now!"she called out to Huntswoman."Take him down,El Bad Tempero."

"With pleasure.But first..."

Jake turned in time to see the Hispanic woman hurl a weapon in which she knocked Rose's twin off with.He realised they were at an enormous height.

She leered at him lustfully,readying her staff."Now for you,you murderer."

The girl's screaming echoed up to him and Jake managed to quickly do an undertuck to avoid the blast and somehow as he did the binds came off.It was instanteous and he was soaring down to help out a complete stranger.

However,the only thing on the empty streets that remained were a skewed staff and just below it a motionless body.Jake winced from where he was several feet in the air but felt a wave of relief when the girl raised her head.

He would have aided her further but a streak of orange light made he flee the scene,his sides and wrists were aching with the strength that had been drained in those places.Jake's only chance of survival was to return home.

Unbeknownst to him,the person who had attacked him again had seen all he needed to see to know the American Dragon must meet a total ending.

That Spud kid is going to be an excellent pawn.He thought knavingly.

"What will be your next move,hajo?"His mother inquired.

"First,we get that delusional girl who doesn't know the truth some help."He had not seen everything but he knew that the dragon had nearly ended this twin sister of Thorn.Though she believed the Huntsclan had died differently.

They had,in this reality.From a catatsrophic lab accident but in the old one he and his mother had survived,the Huntsclan had died because of dragons.

One,in particular.

"Second,Trixie's out of the picture and I have a new blackmail victim."

To be continued...

LP