Boredom ensues, so I try and make up a story.

[MaxwellKing]

Standing in the rain, I waited. Waiting and watching. Two dozen of my finest forces waiting on my command to invade. We all waited for a sign that our enemy was present. Then it came. A flash of lightning illuminated his silhouette through a window pane.

"Ok! Target is in the south wing, third floor. Go! Go!!!"

We all went in, most of my men went in through windows from the ground floor. I knew the layout and all the booby traps. I trained most of them of them, but in this day and age, no one believed me. The only place booby traps were allowed was on Caer Acadi. But they found out the hard way. I heard the screams before long.

"Damn, fools. They should have listened."

Walking casually, I strolled in the front door and walked the three flights up. Reaching it, I saw some of the carnage that occured.

Blood, was splattered everywhere. Fingers, hands, a boot, pieces of uniforms, all were scattered on the floor. It was an effort to avoid the mess and not set any of the traps off. When I got through, he was there, waiting.

"It's about time you got here, Officer Kelley. I was starting to get bored. But it seems my pets got their food and entertainment in the same moment. Its been a couple of days since they had Human flesh."

"What do you have in there now, Brian? Because if memory serves me right, I killed your Chimeras last time."

"Grrrrr. I am no longer called that, my name is Tiamat, and yes, you did kill my poor Chimeras. You fiend."

"Fiend? Your calling ME a fiend?!? Your the one stealing creatures off of Caer Acadi and keeping them in your hell house. Your the one, feeding poor civilians to them. Caer Acadi was set up because of those fools who made them, but it makes an excellent prison as well as a vacation spot for all those crazies out there. Its bad enough that we have to deal with them there, but you... You bring them HERE!!! Well IT ends here. Brian Adams, you are under arrest by order of the Unifeid Earth Planetary Committee."

"Ooooohh, I'm shaking in my boots. And how do you plan on bringing me in?"

"Easy, like this."

I slapped our restrant collar on Brian's neck and locked it in place, just as the tractor beam pulled him out into his cell.

"You like it Brian? I made it just for you. I hope I made it comfy enough for you, because it will hold you indefinitely."

At that moment, a thunderous roar errupted behind me as a wall collapsed and a Manticore came rushing out.

"Oh, shit..."

I pulled my gun to shoot but before I could fire a shot, lightning struck Tiamat's containment cell and it exploded. After that I don't remember much because I would have been technically dead from then on.

 

[MaxwellKing]

Of what I do remember are but vague images. People were standing around me, I was placed in this kind of glass coffin, and then they filled it with water. Then there was some of me looking at different people in white clothing, they had all the instruments near me, but I couldn't move enough to see what they were.

Then finally I truely awoke. I remember the day mostly. It was night and there was a lightning storm going on outside. Or was there.. No. The lightning was inside the building. And it wasn't raining outside, the sprinkler system was activated. I heard the screams before long. I tried to move, but couldn't get the strength to move, it felt as if my arms were tied down.

"Hey there's another one down here."

"Wait for us, first. We don't know what they were working on down here."

Two blurry shapes entered my view. They leaned down and tapped the glass covering my coffin.

"He doesn't look like he's done yet." He looks around the coffin and see the name plate and rubs it off. "It says here his name was Maxwell K..ley. But underneath it someone wrote in Leviathan. What do you think that means, Felicia?"

"I don't know Loki. This place gave us all weird names. I don't really see anything that relates to our names. Come on, Tiamat wants us to finish off the scientists. Lets go find them and get this over with. The sooner I'm outta here, the happier I'll be."

"But, Felicia... What about Leviathan? We can't just leave him here."

"We have no choice. Unless you want to cary him."

"Uhhh.... No, not today. I mean, yeah, I can carry him, but that would be pushing it, I think."

Loki and Felicia start to walk away and Loki turns to Felicia. "Nice tail, Felicia." He winks.

"Go to Hell, Loki."

Tiamat.... That sounds so familiar. Where do I... It then clicks. Brian Adams called himself Tiamat before I arrested him. But why is he here and not on Caer Acadi? Then I remembered the explosion.

Not sure what was going on, I struggled trying to see what was going on. Suddenly feeling confined and wanting to get out now. The urgency fueled my body and then my hands got hot. Snapping my arm restraints my hands caught the top of my coffin and it shattered. Ahhh fresh air. It felt so good. My hands reached at other straps holding me down and snaped them off. I sat up and got the first good look at myself.

"My Goddess. What have they done to me, what has happened to me? My hands, my body, my face, my... tail?"

I tried to stand up and realized that I had a tail now that was still strapped down. And then I thought about it and my tail snapped its bonds. I took a closer look at it, it reminded me almost of a lizard's. Then I looked at my body again.

It was covered in scales like a lizard of sorts. They had a blueish hue and kinda reminded me of water. I then looked at my hands again, where my fingers would have been, are claws and they too are covered in these blue scales.

Being scared of what became of me, I ran. I ran until I found a group of people who were different then normal people. They were standing in a circle around a person in a white uniform.

"Please... Don't. I only clean up here. I didn't do that to you. Don't hurt me."

"Oh, but I enjoy what they did to me. They gave me something I've been craving since I was a little boy. True power to destroy all life. And I'm beginning it here. So, good bye."

With that, the biggest of the group lifted his hand and launched a fireball from it.

"Tiamat. Did you really have to do that? I mean, come on. We killed all the scientists, no your just killing for the pleasure of it."

"Ah but Felicia, thats what I've always done. You could ask any of the police officers that invaded my home several years ago. Oh, wait, they're all dead. Including that dick, Maxwell Kelley. He pissed the hell out of me. I almost went to jail because of him. But instead, now I am the most powerful being alive."

Feeling my anger rise up at what Tiamat did, my hands started to glow and my back started to ache. My inner fire roaring loudly.

"So we meet again, 'Tiamat'. I thought I killed you along time ago. But I see you are up to your old tricks. Killing more innocent people. But No more! I will not let this go on."

"Who the Hell do you think you are, punk. I can crush you in one blow." He turns and looks at his followers. "Who the hell is he?"

Loki looks at Felicia. "Isn't that Leviathan? I thought he was in worse shape than he is."

"Leviathan? What was his real name?"

"It was a Maxwell something or other..."

"KELLEY!?!?!?"

Tiamat turned to me, and was about to unleash a fireball but my rage did it first and fire spewed out my mouth and started to burn the building down.

"FUCK!!! Thats it." Tiamat hurled a fireball at me and missed, but it caught the rafter beam above me and brought the floor above down on me

 

[MaxwellKing]

It took me a half hour to dig myself out. How I survived that, to this day still amazes me. But I found out then that the pain in my back was my wings "sprouting" for lack of a better word. And damn, good timing on their part. They took the brunt of the debris. When I did get out, I saw that Tiamat and his group blew a hole out of the wall and all fled.

Too tired still to give chase, I did the only thing I could think of, I went home. That was something I hoped never to happen ever, to anyone, but alas it did. I get to my "home" to find that my wife of ten years was told I was dead and remarried.

I then found out that I was "dead" for almost thirty years. Damn how the world changed. I originally thought that only a few months passed, but no, after the massacre of my forces and my incapacitation, the Unified Earth Planetary Committee had a sever crack down on groups going to and from Caer Acadi. They set uo a force field of such power that it requires four dozen nuclear power plants just to keep it stable. With the force field going up, it closed the continent down as a prison, because they didn't want to open it to drop them off. As a result anyone convicted of a crime was sentenced to death, that was carried out imediately and as a result, it scared the public into becoming almost pure pacifists. But of course there were some set backs.

In remote regions of the world, geneticists began experimenting with "evolved humans." It was similar to what those damn scientists did on Caer Acadi, but it had a dark edge. They found a way to infuse humans with powers along the lines of almost magikal abilites. Some had regeneration, others could launch fireballs from their hands, but along with that, if they focused for long enough periods of time, they could master other elements.

I found out the hard way that Tiamat and I were not the only ones who escaped from labs and because of it, there were massive hunts for people like us. I suddenly had an urge to find out, exactly what happened to us. I want to see if there is a way to stop it before it becomes inhuman and downright hellish on earth.

I went back to the lab, I realized that it was in a remote sector of what remained of Canada. In the early twenty-first century, humanity kept moving north, the regions along the equator were becoming less hospitable and it started causing massive shifts in the plates as they started to heat up. The polar ice caps melted a great deal and then it happened. It was 2076, the United States of America was dealt a major blow. It divided into three parts, its eastern seaboard seperated first and sank into the Atlantic, joining its former part, Atlantis. On the western half, from the rockies west broke off and drifted off into the pacific, and with all of its power it had, it tried to declare its independence. That was its fatal mistake. After being bombarded by nuclear missles, it became so radioactive that nearly all life ceased on it. But its big side-effect was that the desert started to grow with new life.

The rest of the world went through similar events. India broke off of Asia and collided with Australlia, combining that with New Zealand. Russia divided in half, a decent chunk collided with Japan and they drifted into what was left of the now dead California. Africa and part of South America drifted and joined with Antartica. The world went through a radical shift in climates and geography. With the end of the old world, the new nations decided to end all border disputes and become the Unified Earth Planetary Committee.

Currently they are working on means of broadening living spaces to include other planets and space colonies. Though that is still new, they worked on genetics to create people to live in other places, like deep in the oceans, to try and reclaim Atlantis and its newly joined sunken brother. But it seemed that the scientists had a different plan. They began creating creatures of myth and to repopulate desolate regions. First they began with simple creatures as to not draw too much attention. They created Unicorns, pixies and other creatures of faery nature. Then, after being given rights by the Committee, they began with the more troublesome creatures. Manticores, Chimeras, Sphinxes, Dragons, Gryphons, Trolls, Giants, Hydras. It went on for thirty years and to hide it from the committee, after they created them, they transported them to the dead zone.

After the Committee, found them out, they went out and killed all most all of the scientists and tried to destroy all of the books on Genetics. But as history has told us many times, you can never cover up our mistakes completely. People began to disappear. The Committe was overrun by complaints of there is nothing to protect them from the creatures in the dead zone. So they started up their Police force, trained originally to fight and capture the creatures, people then started trying to sneak them in as pets. Then the books of role playing games became mass market as survival guides on the creatures and with that came the gamers themselves who wanted to go to the place to "create a true gaming enviroment."

Before the Committee ever said anything, groups of them went over there and started things. They began to call the place Caer Acadi, the origins of the name were lost over the ages. But the enviroment was still very harsh, and once you got there, there was no easy way to come back. The Committee decided to make a part of it a prison, but they couldn't get enough construction people there to actually build a prison, they kept getting killed my creatures. So the Committee decided to just drop the prisoners on the continent. It worked because the distance was too far for anyone to swim or boat away from it.

I kept looking through old books, and trying to find anything of importance. I knew most of what was in the books. I found some reference the the term Leviathan and Tiamat but nothing that defined what they were. Loki and Felicia also came up a few times. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong books. After all, after the quakes most books were destroyed. Everything of importance was kept on computers these days. So I dug around and got a few parts of a couple of computers to get a working one. I scanned through it to find some information.

 

[MaxwellKing]

After I spent what felt like days, I think I might hav found something. I found a few files about what happened to Adams and I.

Day 1: We were given the remains of two people today. One was a police officer the other was his target. It appears while trying to apprehend his target in a prototype containment cell, it funneled a stray lightning bolt into its power cells and exploded. How any part of them survived, it was a miracle. The person who gave us the remains claimed to be part of the Unified Earth Planetary Committee, but we here at the labs doubt it. They denounce our methods and for good cause. We set our subjects into their isolation tubes so healing and restructuring can begin.

Day 8: The person who dropped off the subjects wants us to rebuild them in a new fashion. She wants us to build them almost god-like. Though immortality is a dream yet, but we can set the genetic code so that it ages longer. So far, we had one person live for almost two hundred years. We started to remake them by her orders. We still do not know how she wants them to look like yet.

Day 46: It is nearing the time when we need to know how our employer wants our subjects to look, but we haven't seen her in several weeks. If she fails to show up in two weeks, we will do a probe of the subjects mind to see how their inner-selves want to be viewed. The subject Brian Adams shows a great acceptence of the few changes we've made already, however Maxwell Kelley shows a great resilliance to it.

Day 60: Our employer has failed to show up to choose how she wants to have the subjects turn out. So we started the probes. Once again, Brian Adams openly accepted it and showed us what he wanted and Maxwell Kelley was very resistant. We believe that he was a high up offiecer in the police force and could resist for awhile. But we found some memories from his youth that we think we can use. There is a particular image that he was very fond of that appears often. We have decided to use it for his new image. Ok, we have set the main systems to alter their development accordingly. Now the waiting begins.

The next few entries are about other people being delivered and their cases. They mentioned Loki and Felicia and a few others. But before I could get much further, I felt more before I heard a power surge going through the building. Such tremendous power... Suddenly, he computer errupted and out came this being made of electricity. He swiped at my chest and scratched me before I could react. I fell back and roared out in pain. I breathed at him, but hit nothing but the computer, melting it down to nothing. Then he attacked from above me out of a light. I breathed again and hit nothing again. He kept coming from all directions until the room was ablaze, then he stopped coming. Realizing what I did, I went the only way I could out of the room. I jumped out the twentieth story window.

 

[MaxwellKing]

I did what felt natural after I jumped. I spread my wings, hoping they were more than just for show. And as the Fates would have it, I began to fly. I flew west towards the mountains and the coast, hoping no one was watching. After an hour of flying, I felt my strength nearing on emptiness, so I landed in a small meadow on the side of a mountain. I spent the night there, curled up, I didn't try to start a fire, incase someone was after me. I dug a slight ditch to bury myself in to stay warm, it helped very little. I felt the sun creep up in the morning, its warmth, instantly warming me up.

I tried to fly some more, but realized that, I still have very little strength back, because I haven't eaten anything for almost half a day. So I went hunting. Not too much later, I caught myself a nice size buck and proceeded to skin it, clean it and cook it. Not fearing the smoke being seen, I had a roaring fire for the majority of the day. Dinner was delicious, never had I tasted such well cooked venicine.

That night, I slept more restfully, I found that I have a high resistance to getting burned when a piece of wood exploded onto me, so I slept on the ashes of my fire, feeling their heat and staying warm from them. The next day I was feeling stronger and more powerful than the day before and I cast out once again. But instead of heading west towards the ocean, I traveled south to see what is going on in the world.

 

[Guest]

look into my eyes
you'll find
what you mean to me

take my heart
take my soul...[i/]

credit roll:

Script: MaxwellKing
Screen play: MaxwellKing
Director of photography: MaxwellKing
Sound engineer: MaxwellKing
Assistant director: MaxwellKing
Director: MaxwellKing
Producer: MaxwellKing
Pop corn lady: Dixon Carter Lee

 

[MaxwellKing]

It took me several days to first come apon some signs of civilization, but my walk didn't really bother me. Apon reaching civilization, the first item I searched out was a cloaking device that could alter my image and pass as a human. I had to dredge the lower levels of the city before I found and clue to who might have some. After getting one, I realized that my wings and tail would still be a problem, trying to use duct tape worked to a degree, but I knew with one quick stretch, they would pop free.

After making myself look human and restraining my extra body parts, I went to a library to read up on some past issues of the news to see what may be going on in the world. I noticed that there were no articles on the explosions at the labs, I also found that according to the papers, those labs have been desolate for nearly fifty years. Now I was intrigued on what was going on there and how long its been going on for. In reading, I also saw articles of a group of creatures believed to be form Caer Acadi but they possessed superior intelligence to be standard creatures. I knew that it must be Tiamat and his little following. I took some notes on where they were spotted and concluded where they are planning on going to next. But first things first, I needed to find out what is the status of my finances.

I went to a computer and accessed my bank accounts. I found two of them were emptied and closed. My third account was still active and had accumilated a good deal of money. I withdrew a fraction of it, but enough to do some of the deeds I needed to. I went and got myself an apartment under an old alias of mine from the police force and started making plans on what to do.

 

[MaxwellKing]

Knowing I could never really return to civilization because of the fact that I was now a creature and the fact that I am proclaimed dead and have been for the last thirty years. So believing that idea, I figured that they way things currently are, with Tiamat moving towards the Unified Earth Planetary Committee headquaters, and that they are so powerful I need to intercept theem before that threat gets out of control. My biggest problem is that there are atleast four of them, five if that Electrical guy was on his side, and all of them are more experienced with their powers than I am. So I decided that I need tools and equipment to catch and contain them if or something to enhance my own powers. But in order to really have time to do that, I have to intercept them and just give the committee some time to evacuate. So I committed myself to a suicide mission.

Within a few hours of his attack on the UEPC, I made my attack. I attacked just before dawn and they had no idea on what was going on. I made it swift and sweet. Getting enough of their attention for them to start following me. I flew as fast as I could to avoid getting hit, but no matter how fast I seemed to go, they kept pace with me. I eventually led them off land, taking them towards Caer Acadi. But before we could get to the continent, I needed to open the shield. So just before we hit the shield barrier, I blew up the closest generator and it dropped our section of sheilds. I took them to Caer Acadi and when we got there, I made my stand.

The fighting was fierce and brutal. Having realized that I lured him into a trap, Tiamat tried to escape but the shield breach sounded the alarm sending the police force to the generators to patch the shield up again. When he and his group realized this, they left to find a hiding spot so they could plan up escapes.

Since I traped all of us in Caer Acadi, there has been very little confrontations between us, because there is a natural balance here, nothing too powerful can exsist without fear for when word gets out of things like us being here, the hunts begin. Adventurers search us out for game and experience because they think that creatures are infinite and will "regenerate" for them so they can kill them again. Everynow and then a group of travelers come across my new home and I have to kill them all before they could spread and word on me. But usually its a lone scout or ranger. One thing I learned while living on Caer Acadi, was that I have some power over water so whenever I had to go out and get food, I made the sky darken with rain and flew over all the parties, sometimes taking a member here or there.

It has been a few months since my last conflict with anyone of Tiamat's group before I heard a group of passing travelers mention a being of immense power living in a castle to the north. The worst part of it was he had the power to control dragons of any color. The good news was that the group he was formerly traveling with is mostly gone now. Loki and the lightning bug, were killed by Tiamat, Felicia escaped, but Tiamat kept one as a pet. They called him Doppleganger. I also overheard that there was a massive hunt out for Felicia and the other creature that came in with them but was not part of Tiamat's group. "Hmmm they know of me. Damn." I flew out of my hiding and killed the quiet one and took the talkative one to a hidden cave.

"Where are they hunting the one called Felicia?"

"Aa.a.. A few miles north of here. Why?? .... Oh my god, you're him.!"

I snapped his neck before he said anything else. "Hmmm of all the places, Felicia is coming here. Does she know I'm here and is seeking safety? I should see what she wants."

I flew out then and seeked out the hunt. Not using my water powers, I stuck with my evasion abilities and flew from cloud to cloud. But what I did do was start a storm a couple of miles away and tried to get the wind to kick up in gusts. I found the hunt after a short look and saw Felicia shortly after. She was still running south, but unknownst to her, she was heading into a trap. When she got closer to it, I brought the storm in. The storm was the fiercest I've ever created yet. Lightning claped all across the sky, as if it was dancing. I watched Felicia get very close to the trap and just before the hunters attacked, I swooped in and attacked them. I riped them apart with my claws as Felicia came into the opening and saw what I did. All she saw was my silhoutte lit from behind by lightning, and the blood dripping off my claws and teeth.

She almost screamed but realized that it was I and not a normal creature. She calmed herself down and came over to me.

"I know we've had our difficulties in the past, but we need to get past them. Tiamat has grown too powerful and he killed the rest of our group except for his "pet", Doppleganger."

"I know... Felicia is it?"

"Yes and I know who you are and were. Officer Maxwell Kelley of the UEPPF and now Leviathan, Water Dragon. I was origianlly called Kelly Jones. I was a member of your police task force that attacked Tiamat's fortress. But because of everything thats gone on, I didn't realize who you were or who Tiamat was. If I had known he was Brian Adams, I wouldn't have joined him so quickly, we were all mad at what they did to us and wanted revenge. He just gave us the easiest option."

"Well Felicia, the easiest option is not always the best option. As we can all see now. Well, the question now in front of us, is 'What is the best option now?'"

 

[MaxwellKing]

It took us several weeks before we could come up with a plan that wasn't a straight out, suicidal one. With Felicia's experiences in Tiamat's fortress, we were able to find a small sewer drain that gave Felicia access to an entrance. I had to sneak in through the Dragon's Roosts. From there we were to meet up in the rear access to the Great Hall. Also we needed to eliminate as much opposition before confronting Tiamat.

After a week of preparations, we embarked on possibly our last mission together. Before we went to far I motioned to Felicia to come closer. Then I kissed her.

"Try and survive this. I want you to live, even if I don't."

"Don't talk like that Max. We'll both survive and we'll live together here."

Felicia then kissed me back. Smiling slightly, I nodded my agreement and we trudged off. After a few days of ground travel, we got to the ouskirts of Tiamat's lands.

"This is where we split up. Take care, my sweet little Felicia."

"You too, Leviathan. I'll see you in the back hall."

We kissed again, this time for a bit longer. I was longing for this to end and for us to be together. After we broke the kiss, I made a storm brew directly over the castle. The sky darkening so much, that unless you could see in pitch black darkness, you would have easily lost your way.

My first stop was at the power intake port. I spat fire streams to melt the lines so that the power went out. Then I went up to the entrance to the Dragons Roost. Being smaller than a standard dragon, I drew my broadsword and entered the darkness.

It was near impossible to fight all those dragons in the dark. The shadow dragons attacked first. Their flames lit the way for the others. Admist the darkness and bits of flames and acid, I fought. Wave upon wave of dragons. I fought in a blind rage until no more attacked. Covered in blood and soot, I made my way to the back of the roost. When I got to the door, I turned and breathed as much fire as I could to burn the roost down.