Make Love Not War: Dragon Fire

“Six Dead in Corporation HQ blast, Countless injured as crystal shatters, top floor destroyed.” the headline of the October edition of the school newsletter stated in black and white.
“They’re saying that there was an explosion at the Summit” said Mark sitting around the common room with Kristina and James.
“Six people died, but none of the Corporation Managers” Mark continued.
“Who would do such a thing?” Kristina asked not expecting an answer.
“Magic group The Spell Casters have claimed responsibility for the bombing” Mark read aloud.
“I hate the Magic’s” said James.
“You’ve never met one” Kristina replied.
“And I don’t want to, if they are going to blow me up”
“But that’s just one group of them, I bet some of them are really nice, maybe we’ll meet one when we go out into the lower city” Kristina joked.
The students had decided to go out into the lower city on Halloween which was a Magic festival that was still celebrated in the lower city, although in the upper city and the university itself it was considered bad taste to even mention it. But it was a celebration where costumes were worn and all the Phoenix freshmen agreed that it would be easier not to be caught if they wore costumes.
Two weeks after the bombing and the Air Taxis were finally opened to the students. Mark and Kristina had decided to go and look for outfits to wear at Halloween and so they ventured down to the East station on the next Saturday. They swiped their I.D. cards and entered the train.
Inside the Air Taxi were seats for up to eight people. And in the centre was a screen similar to their panels with a map of the upper city and various locations on it. There was “The Gaming District” which was full of arcades and places to play cards and bet on sporting events. “The Theatre District” where there were shows of all different types to go and see. “The Food District” which was full of restaurants which served every food anyone could ever imagine and some no-one really wanted to imagine like sprouts. “Assam Station” the underground cross country train station which was the main entry point to Assam, for those who weren’t going to the university. Next there was “The Business District” where all the office buildings in Assam were located. Finally there was “The Commerce District” which contained the great rooftop malls which contained thousands of shops selling anything anyone could ever want. Kristina eagerly pressed “The Commerce District” and the Air Taxi shot off down the tracks.
It wasn’t long before the Taxi arrived at its destination and Kristina and Mark stepped out to find a bustling shopping centre in front of them full of people. They walked inside looking for any clothing or costume shops and Kristina’s face lit up when she saw a shop called “Secret Desires” she ran inside pulling Mark along with her.
To his horror inside the shop Mark was confronted with a sea of ladies lingerie which he wasn’t sure he should be looking at. Trying to keep his eyes from looking at the underwear he focused on Kristina who was moving through the shop towards the back. Mark was even more horrified that towards the rear of the shop was full of what seemed to be disembodied penises.
“What are they?” he asked Kristina nervously.
Kristina giggled and asked “What do you think they are?”
“They look like my…… only bigger”
Kristina giggled again and said “That’s right; they are for girls who don’t have one of their own to play with. Don’t you masturbate?”
Mark turned bright red. “Well yeah but...”
“Well that’s what we these are for. Anyway they are not why we are here. The Secret Desires shop in Ifing sells uniforms and costumes.” She said and then rushed off to find a sales assistant who could help her.
“Where can I find the costumes?” she asked the sales assistant.
“Oh right over here” the woman said and then showed Kristina. Meanwhile Mark was feeling more and more uncomfortable in the shop. Everywhere he turned he was confronted with phallic shaped objects and pieces of sexy ladies underwear. Were he not so embarrassed he felt sure he would be massively turned on by it all. This however just made him even more embarrassed. Kristina meanwhile was having the time of her life trying on all the outfits. She had picked a dozen of them off the racks and had gone to the changing rooms to try them on and had come out to show each of them to Mark and insisted on getting his opinion. There had been a sexy Ceylon’s costume, an air shuttle pilot’s uniform, an airship sailor’s uniform and a naughty schoolgirl outfit which Mark had to admit was almost exactly the same as their normal Assam uniform. Finally though Kristina came out wearing a witch’s costume and the two decided that it would be perfect for Halloween.
Since Mark didn’t have a first clue about what he was going to dress up as, Kristina decided they should find him a suit and a mask and that way he could go as The Phantom of the Opera which was her favourite musical. She had been to see it many times in Ifing and even been as far as Tennant City to go and see it. She had even developed an unhealthy crush on one of its stars Jeeves Rickman and confessed to Mark that there was a secret poster oh him in her suitcase that she hadn’t yet dared put up around her bed in case people laughed at her.
Halloween came on the final day of October. The students had agreed to meet in the Upper City and change into their costumes in one of the hotels in the Business district. It was a cold night and some of the girls were beginning to regret their small provocative outfits. Kristina’s witches costume was a small black dress with purple trim that showed off plenty of skin. It was low cut, showing off her modest cleavage and only just covered her peachy round bottom. She had attempted to cover up her legs by wearing knee high purple hold ups that she had quickly returned to “Secret Desires” to buy when it became clear that it would be a very cold night. Kayleigh meanwhile had chosen to go as a devil, wearing a red leather corset and a red mini skirt, with a tail that seemed to be attached to her underwear. Her outfit was completed with some red knee high boots with impossibly high heels. Hannah and Selphie meanwhile had dressed somewhat more demurely; Hannah had dressed as Cat Girl who was a comic book heroine popular with teenage girls. Her costume was composed of a black cat suit with black and red face paints and like Kayleigh she also had a tail. Selphie on the other hand had dressed as the eponymous character from the ancient myth “Alice in Wonderland”. Her costume was a lavish blue dress with white knee high socks. Meanwhile the boys hadn’t made as much effort apart from Paul who had somehow constructed some magnificent, almost lifelike white wings, with real feathers. Tom on the other hand had said he was dressing as Dracula, but his costume only seemed to be composed of his black tuxedo until he opened his mouth and showed everyone his fangs and some fake blood which he had bought from a children’s shop. And then there was James whose costume seemed to be just a suit and when asked what his costume was supposed to be he said he was a card dealer from one of the Casinos in the Gaming District. Finally there was Mark dressed in his Phantom of the Opera costume which was made up of a black suit with a white mask covering half of his face.
They waited in the square of the business district until they were joined by Alex who was a Phoenix House third year and his girlfriend Natalie. Natalie was dressed in a white bikini top with a sheer black t shirt over it and an ultra-short mini skirt and stilettos. Mark thought this was another Halloween costume but he was wrong.
“Natalie is going to tempt away the guards so that you guys can get in” Alex said before kissing Natalie as she walked away. The group followed her to the gate between the Upper and Lower City and watched as Natalie went to talk to the guards. She seemed to have been talking to them for a while and Mark was starting to worry that this wasn’t going to work. But sure enough eventually she was led away by the two guards.
“Quick let’s go” Alex said. And the students ran through the gate.
On the other side of the gate the contrast to the Business District of the Upper City was remarkable. Where the Business District had been beautifully lit with wide streets that were almost empty, the Lower City was cramped and overcrowded and it was so dark that the Phoenix Freshmen had to hold hands to make sure they were still following each other. Alex led them to a bar and outside they could hear loud banging music and see flashing lights coming from within. Inside was like nowhere Mark had ever seen before. By the entrance there was a bar and the rest of the room was one massive dance floor except for a catwalk like stage in the middle and a row of booths on either side against the wall. On each side of the stage there were oversized bird cages at least two girls in gyrating to the music, in one of the bird cages Mark could swear that the girls were making love to each other. On the stage were several dancing girls, each wearing luminous bikini tops and short shorts.
Alex led the freshmen to one of the booths and went to get them some drinks as they all sat around the table watching the circus that was going on in front of them. He returned with a whole selection of drinks for them to try, there were Apple Arrows, Bubble Gum Blasters, Obnoxious Oranges, Melon Mashers, Snapple Schnapps and of course the Vodka Elixir that they had enjoyed so much in the freshman dorm room. It wasn’t long before all the girls had drunk enough courage to get up to dance and joined the masses of shiny, sweaty bodies gyrating on the dance floor. Paul had left the table as well but was nowhere to be seen amongst the masses. Tom and James hadn’t noticed any of this however and were instead staring fascinated at the girls in the bird cages and were watching open mouthed as the nearest two girls ground their bodies against each other, kissing each other. Kristina came back to the booth to take another sip of her Bubblegum Blaster and pulled Mark up to dance with her. Mark had never danced before in his life, but the Obnoxious Oranges that he had drunk were helping him as he tried to move his body along to the pounding beat.
A little while later and Alex made his way around the group handing out sweets. They were small round and white and he had told them to swallow them with a drink like a painkiller. So the group, minus Paul of whom nobody cared that he had disappeared, gathered back around the booth table and swallowed the ‘sweet’ followed by the rest of their drinks which they all downed successfully apart from Selphie who started laughing midway through and the drink squirted over Tom and Hannah who were sitting on either side of her. This just made everyone laugh hysterically however.
The girls went back out onto the dance floor and Kristina pulled Mark up once more. Now that he had eaten the sweet he found dancing a lot easier and more fun. And was beginning to dance closer and closer to Kristina. Then suddenly the music stopped, the lights came up and then moved to focus on the stage. A drum beat started and a girl walked out dressed in a small light blue bedlah with bustle pants and a tight top that accented her breasts and left her toned midriff exposed. Mark was stunned; he thought she may well have been the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She began to belly dance her way down the stage a crowd of men gathering around the catwalk hooting loudly as her hips moved in perfect time with the beat. Mark thought he could even see the music in those hips.
It was all over too soon for Marks liking and the girl retreated backstage and the loud music returned the lights dimming. Kristina and the rest of the girls resumed their dancing but Mark was starting to feel a bit hot so he excused himself to go outside. He knew the sweet had changed him in some way, made him feel more at ease, and more confident. He walked around the corner and laughed at the scarlet puddle that was in front of him, and laughed even more at the Ceylon who had seemingly fallen asleep in the puddle even though he still had his eyes open. Suddenly he bumped into something. It was soft like a person. He looked up and found himself staring into the hazel eyes of a girl and she was beautiful.
“My god, have you taken a sweet?” the girl said though he didn’t know who to.
She grabbed hold of him and pulled him down an alley and into a small square room. She sat him down in a chair and looked outside before returning.
“Esuna, Effects of status, be gone” she chanted and suddenly a light appeared from her chest and moved into Marks chest. Suddenly his head was clear and he realised that the girl was the same beautiful woman he had seen belly dancing on the stage inside the club.
“What happened?” he asked.
“You were high on sweets” she said. “It’s not good”.
“But they made me feel brilliant” Mark replied.
“Well they do at first, but then you just end up making you do bad things, and i can’t let that happen to someone so cute.” The girl smiled at him.
“Who are you?” Mark asked
“My name is Jasmine” she replied. “I live here in the slums, welcome to my house”
“Thank you Jasmine. I’m Mark I’m a student at Assam University” Mark said. “I should get back to my friends”
“Don’t go yet” Jasmine said. “The Ceylons will be here any second and I don’t want you to get caught”
“Why will they be here?”
“You didn’t notice the dead Ceylon you just tripped over huh” she said calmly.
“Oh my god. He was dead. I thought he was sleeping”
“Yes Mark, he was sleeping in a pool of his own blood... “she said sarcastically before seeing the crestfallen look on his face. “Don’t worry. the sweets make you think everything is fine and good. I’m not surprised you didn’t notice”
Then a siren sounded. And the sound of a marching army of Ceylons filled the air.
“They’re here” Jasmine said “We need to move they’ll look in here” She approached him and offered her hand. Mark took it and got to his feet. Their eyes met. Mark moved to speak but his words got stuck in his throat and then to Marks surprise Jasmine kissed him. Their lips met, electricity passing through them. Mark closed his eyes and felt at one with her, the kiss seemed to last forever but was over far too soon. As the kiss broke Mark moved his head back and looked into Jasmine’s hazel eyes speechless. Then suddenly a heavy blow hit him on the head. He fell forwards and looked behind him to see a tall blue Ceylon standing smiling with a club in his hand. The world faded out as he hit the floor.