Dragon Knights Fan Fiction ❯ Dragon Knights Sentai ❯ Prologue ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

This is the prologue for a thirteen chapter series. It was supposed to be much shorter, but grew in the writing - turned into the intro scene for the main characters. I was worried that it'd only stretch to two or three hundred words. Of course, the first sentence was to be: "I want to do a sentai show" and then, starting a great tradition, Lykouleon was late, so it had to be put in later.

This series was inspired by a moment in My-Hime when the red-head shouted "Hime sentai!". I just thought, sentai shows are cool. Dragon Knights. Dragon Knights the sentai show. It's perfect! There's also a series that I can't remember the name of that owes a lot to the general plot.

The official pairings are Ruwalk/Cernozura, Lykouleon/Raseleane and Rune/Tintlett. There are some yaoi references, but no shonen ai. *twitch*

Thanks Suaru-chan for agreeing to beta this for me.

Prologue

---

The severe-looking matron patted her hair and shuffled her feet in the dusky boardroom. One of the others coughed and she joined in twice. There was no small talk; no-one seemed to know anyone else and they simply waited in the dark, each one staring into space.

The room held an odd collection of people. The matron could have fronted a knitting programme. The white-haired man sitting across from her looked like he was fresh from an action flick with his open shirt and slight tan and the scowling, nervous man beside him could have been doing costumes at a big-budget musical. The long-haired gentleman beside her nodded away as music blared out through his headphones and the last one at the glass table resembled an accountant, although his serious suit was completely spoiled by the open-toed sandals he wore.

The uncomfortable silence was eventually broken by the nervous man. "How long is Lykouleon going to keep us waiting? I bet he's forgotten that he's even invited us here."

The music-lover smiled, slipped his headphones off his ears and said "Sorry?"

The nervous man drummed his fingers against the table and said "Maybe if you weren't playing music so loud that we could make out the words this far away, you'd be able to understand what people who are here to discuss work with you are saying."

The smile faded as the long-haired music fan leant forward. "Listen, Twitch..."

"Twitch?" yelled Twitch. "Don't call me that! My name is Alfeegi."

"I'm Ruwalk. Pleased to meet you," said the music-lover, as he reached over and shook the stunned Alfeegi's hand.

"Call me Kai-Stern," said the action hero, standing up and joining in.

"Tetheus," muttered the accountant, waving from his seat.

"Cernozura," said the matron with a smile. She took the handshakes she was offered. "I'm a script-writer..."

"So you must know something about the show Lykouleon wants us to work on," Alfeegi said, seizing on her words.

Cernozura shook her head. "I'm completely in the dark. I was told that this meeting was where we'd hash out the ideas."

With a rueful sigh, Action Kai-Stern leant back in his seat. "If there's not even a basic premise then we're a long way from filming."

Ruwalk nodded, then turned to the matronly Cernozura. "Still, if you're the script-writer, then it should be similar to the shows you've worked on before. What's your background?"

Cernozura shifted in her seat as the four attractive men turned their full attention on her. Even Twitch leaned forward and she coughed again. "Well, the other shows I worked on had a mainly female crew. I mostly write romantic dramas like Sweet Schoolgirls In Love, Under My Silken Lips I Wait For You and um, Lonely High School."

Twitch twitched, Tetheus looked away, the music man sighed and fiddled with his mp3 player, but Kai-Stern perked up. "I loved Lonely High School," he gushed. "I didn't catch Sweet Schoolgirls in Love, but I've heard good things about it. So you wrote for those shows, eh?" He clapped his hands loudly and then rubbed them together. "Should be a nice change of pace for me, anyway. It's always good to try new things."

Alfeegi snorted. "You mean that you're hoping to meet and educate the school girls who'll be starring in the show."

Ruwalk paused while re-fitting his earphones as Kai-Stern demurred. "Of course not." His eyes clouded over and a sappy grin spread across his face. "I just adore stories about innocent love and the coming-of-age tales of teenagers."

"What shows have you worked on then?" asked Ruwalk.

"Ah," smiled Kai-Stern. "I've a wide portfolio: Yaoi Takes A Bow, which is a documentary, the second Gravitation DVD series, Kyo Kara Maoh and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington."

"I don't remember that being about gay love," mumbled Tetheus.

"Our version is still in post production," said Kai-Stern. "It should be ready for next year's Sundance festival, though."

The conversation ended there and everyone smiled and grimaced at each other, while wondering if a new and agreeable topic could be found.

"Does anyone know if Lykouleon's going to try and shove his son into this production as well?" asked Cernozura, suddenly sitting forward. "He's been in everything Lykouleon's produced since he was old enough to sit still."

"What?" exclaimed Alfeegi and Ruwalk together. Tetheus shrugged and Kai-Stern bit his lip while staring off into space.

"That's not true," he said. "Rath has been in a lot of his shows as an extra, but he's definitely not appeared in any of the porn films."

"Even so," said Cernozura. "Fifteen is around the age that a lot of idols make their first bid for fame." She flopped back into her chair "I hate writing for sticky boys - it's all action and very little romance."

"How do you know so much about Lykouleon's son?" asked Tetheus mildly, still looking at Kai-stern. Ruwalk and Alfeegi swivelled in unison: Ruwalk's mouth twitching at the corners and Alfeegi shooting accusing glares at the action-star.

"Hey, HEY!" he shouted, standing up. "Just because I'm close to a young boy doesn't mean that it's sexual. Rath is my godson - of course I know about him."

He lost the accusing glares, but the looks he got remained dubious.

"What's this show going to be like?"

"IT'LL BE GREAT!"

The room turned to see a smiling man in a crisp, white suit, framed in the doorway.

"How long have you been standing there, Lykouleon?" asked Tetheus, rising and bowing.

Lykouleon didn't answer, instead walking around the table to greet everyone individually. "How are you Cernozura? Glad you're on board, Ruwalk. How's the golf-swing Kai-Stern? Looking lovely as ever, Alfeegi. Tetheus! I'm delighted you came." When he'd completed his circuit, he sat in the big tub chair at the head of the table and swivelled from side to side. "I've got a great idea. I saw an episode of the new CLAMP show: Magic Knight Rayearth and I thought that it was brilliant, so we're going to do our own sentai show!"

He waited for the brilliance of his idea to sink in.

"You mean a group of teenage warriors of justice, with each one given a different colour or something to mark them out from the rest? Like the Power Rangers, or... " asked Ruwalk.

"Exactly. We'll have five guys, all of them affiliated to one of five elements, fire, water, earth, wind and light and each of them will have a dragon of these elements, so we'll be able to show them in ordinary mode, with no special effect cost and then in full dragon-riding mode."

"Sir, light isn't an element." pointed out Tetheus. "The usual fifth element is metal, or wood and why choose wind, instead of air?"

"No, light is perfect - he'll be the leader you see," Lykouleon said with a smile. Everyone around the table nodded automatically. "Great! Rath's very excited about this!"

"Rath?" queried Ruwalk, holding his hand over his mouth.

"Yes," chirped Lykouleon. "He's taken all sorts of acting lessons and his latest tutor says that he can't teach him anymore, so I reckon that it's time for him to get some practical experience."

Tetheus moved his chair closer and muttered, "his tutor can't teach him any more, or his tutor can't teach him, anymore?"

The proud father swung back and forth in his chair, ignoring Tetheus totally.

"Anyway," the smiling man said. "I suppose that I should hand out the jobs first. Cernozura, you're on script duty."

"S-sir," stuttered Cernozura. "I don't have any experience with sentai shows. I write girlish romance stories, not action serials."

"What I need," said Lykouleon, reaching over and placing a warm hand on her shaking ones, "is a show with heart. You can give me that heart. Oh, there'll be action and hi-jinks and special effects, true - but we'll also deal with teenagers, going through a troubled part of their lives. Why, I've a great back-story for the Light Leader." He suddenly frowned. "Light Leader sounds a bit corny."

"Well," stated Tetheus, "they have dragons, maybe the titles could be based on that?"

"Dragon Warriors?" offered Alfeegi.

"No." Kai-Stern shook his head. "There's a computer game called Dragon Warriors and there's bound to be a production based on it. How about Dragon Fighters?"

"Dragon Wielders?"

"Dragon Riders?"

"Dragon Riders!" shouted Lykouleon. "With saddles and lances. I can see the concept art now."

"Lances?" said Cernozura, taking down frantic notes. She underlined Dragon Riders, like knights, you mean?"

"Dragon Knights? Even better," squealed Lykouleon. "We can give the individual knights titles like: Fire Dragon Knight, or Water Dragon Knight. The linguistics work out much better than Fire Dragon Rider."

"Still, sir. I'm not comfortable working on this series," Cernozura reiterated her concerns, but Lykouleon brushed them aside.

"I'm an Executive Producer with experience, my dear. You have oodles of talent and it's time we developed that in a new field. You'll be fine, don't worry. Half the screen time will be loud explosion, you won't have to churn out dialogue."

"I like dialogue," mumbled Cernozura, but the Producer had moved on.

"Ruwalk, costumes and props. We've finally found a vehicle where your taste for lamé and lycra will be rewarded. Thinking about it now, that wasn't the best look for a period film, but it was my call and I'm sorry that you took so much flak for it."

Ruwalk smiled and opened his mouth, when he realised that Lykouleon was already complimenting Kai-Stern on his tan.

"Kai, baby! How's the wife feel about lending your good self to me again?"

Kai-Stern smiled. "Oh, Kimiko's gone. We fell out over the summer vacation. I'm dating twins at the moment, but they haven't moved in yet."

"You must have them over for tea. Rath would love to see you again."

"Of course, of course. Should I bring one or both of them?"

"Your choice, my boy. Now, I can count on you for sets and locations?"

Kai-Stern nodded. "I've done a bit of travelling recently and I've some interesting sites that I've been saving for you."

"Excellent. There's quite a few, unique and challenging locations that I have in mind. Some mountains, a hot spring, the usual, but also a volcano."

"Volcano?"

"Active if it's at all possible."

Cernozura underlined volcano.

"'Feegi," Lykouleon said.

Alfeegi was shaking like a kid in a candy store. His face had turned red and he looked like he was about to have his one true moment of bliss.

"You're my production manager."

The redness intensified and several facial tics manifested.

"No!!" he screamed, jumping to his feet. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You promised! You said that I'd never have to do that again! You promised that I could be the director next time, that I'd have a show just for me, my show! My show!"

"I've done better than that!" Lykouleon said, when he'd run out of steam.

"How!" snarled Alfeegi.

"The production manager spends most of their time with the director and I've hired one of the best in the business to show you the ropes."

He gestured to Tetheus, who waved. Alfeegi's colour faded and he flopped back down.

"Oh, you're that Tetheus?" Ruwalk said, looking eagerly at the accountant. "I hadn't realised - it's such a common name."

Tetheus shrugged his shoulders. "I'm often mistaken for other Tetheus's," he said. "My accountant has the same name and I've been forced into a few meetings, before I managed to explain that I know nothing about balance sheets and whatnot." He lifted a china cup and sipped delicately from it. Ruwalk glanced around. Tetheus was the only one enjoying a beverage. "Mmmm. It allows me to explore another side of life - the mundane one, which can be quite hard for us creatives to capture adequately," he continued, straightening his serious tie. His toes flexed in their open sandals.

Lykouleon startled them all with a clap. "Well, now that's out of the way, I want to check that everyone's free tomorrow for casting."

"CASTING?"

"But we - but we, don't even have a script," wailed Cernozura.

"Or a plot!" screamed Alfeegi.

"Or a detailed cast," exclaimed Ruwalk.

"Or crew," added Kai-Stern.

"Or contracts," stated Tetheus.

Lykouleon brushed their complaints aside. "I'm so excited about this project. Isn't it better to know and to visualise our actors before we write the scripts? We can tune the characters directly into their personalities. It's a great idea."

"But what'll they read at the casting call?" asked Kai-Stern. "We have to see how good their acting is."

"Oh, talk to them, ask them for a party piece - every actor has one. This way, they'll all give their best performance and they'll be acting something that they're comfortable with. Or do improv with them or something. We'll work it all out tomorrow."

"TOMORROW?"

"Bright and early, I'll see you there," he said, sweeping out of the room and leaving devastation behind.

---

I didn't expect Cernozura to be matronly. I meant kinda... prim, but I don't know what image you came up with in your head. I was trying for the equivalent of her repressed Victorian style. Maybe "dowdy" would have been a better word choice. I did get a bit paranoid at one point that she was turning into an author avatar, probably because she's a writer - I'm hoping for a fairly strict third person point of view, although there is a bit of a Cernozura bias here.