Dragons on Vacation

JEJU ISLAND, SOUTH KOREA

Defending democracy and killing communist cloned metahumans alongside Dragon Girl had perks. After that debacle in Jagarata, a reprieve was welcome, to help put the horrors behind them. A UN chartered AC-130 Hospital plane picked them up, with US and Korean specialists who treat metahumans. In three hours they were at Jeju Island, for a 72 hour post mission debrief, though the actual debrief usually took only a couple of hours and the rest was down time.

Deimos and his family were sequestered at an AirBnB, in a fairly modernist beach house overlooking the sea, the beach below accessible with a wooden staircase in the backyard. The kitchen was fully furbished with essentials like water, milk, coffee and tea, and crackers. The living room was glass curtain on two sides, so a person who stood in the garden could through the house and see the ocean, while the bedrooms on the second floor had similarly wonderful views. All taken care of, courtesy of the South Korean government. With all that had happened time would quickly pass in a blur. Dragon Girl stayed somewhere else, of course, for security reasons.

The next morning the manicured garden alive with activity, as a catering service was one hand to prepare two long tables filled with food, and a third seat for seating five people. It was an ample Brunch buffet, one table had staple American dishes – trays filled with bacons, sausages, waffles, cereal, milk, toast, a whole bunch of jams. The other table Asian dishes – Roast pork teriyaki, BBQ Chicken Sate, even spicy Korean fried chicken, some rice cakes, a pile of kimchi and pickled vegetables. There was even a cooler full of juices, milk drinks, fresh fruits and yogurts, while the catering group even set up an omelette station. This was the least they could do to thank Deimos for his involvement with the Jagarata incident.

June arrived in plain clothes – denim shorts that let her long legs breath, and a big loose cotton blouse, a beach hat and shades. As if a seven foot tall Asian woman could go anonymous. Beside her was a small, mousy older woman, in her 50’s, far more typical Asian size. She had a big floral dress on. This was flip flops climate, and June didn’t even bother with footwear.

June entered the garden with her own mother, seeing if maybe they’d been too early. She checked her watch, maybe 9am was still too early after fighting communist super clones.

Deimos’s plane ride hadn’t been pleasant in any sense of the word. Doctors and nurses poked and prodded him, at least after a bit they gave him some good pain meds before they got to work on his collar bone. The bone was definitely snapped like a twig, but some of the muscle around it was also heavily damaged as well and the first rib was cracked almost fully through.

A biomancer on the hospital plane took over as they put Deimos out with some heavy sedatives to fix his wounds. Twice in a day, Deimos had been drugged into unconsciousness, however this time he was happy about it.

In 24 hours Deimos was awake in an unfamiliar bed.

He groggily turns over to find a tall glass of orange juice and a sleeve of oreos on his bedside table. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was until the first oreo went down and before he knew it, he was out of cookies and juice. Sitting up, he realizes his chest was wrapped with bandage, compressing his left wing down to his back to avoid any muscle strain and his left arm was slinged. As Deimos tests the arm, he finds he is still incredibly sore, even if his damage had been healed.

He stands, stretching his good wing, he groggily stumbles out of this strange bedroom to find a pleasant living room, with his parents. His mother happily tending to a souvenir pot of flowers that she’d gotten in Jagarata and his father was happily watching the only channel on Tv he could find in english.

“Hey, look who’s awake!” Kathy chirps, setting down her watering can.
“Where are w-”
“South Korea!
---

The half dragon couldn’t help but feel incredibly strange about attending any kind of buffet for anything he did in Jagarata. This felt like he was dipping his toes into superhero territory and all he wanted was to pull away as violently as he could.

However, his parents fed him the ‘well, it’ll be good for you’ spheal again and so they were going to this brunch whether he wanted to or not. Never once did it occur to him that the dragon woman would probably be there.

He arrives, although about 15 minutes late due to having forgotten to take his prescribed painkillers and having to return for them. He arrives in navy cargo shorts and a black tee shirt, with some light grey star designs across the right side.

Kathy, having gone shopping in the time her son was knocked out, wore a flowy floral blouse that was mostly black with bright green and pink flowers with white capris and new bright green flip flops. Meanwhile, Ed was content in his pair of jeans he’d worn every day, a shirt in a slightly different color than June had seen him in before and the same pair of work boots that he’d nearly worn the soles out of.

Deimos looked like he’d literally been dragged here as his parents happily entered the garden, but a familiar scent catches his attention as soon as he’s down wind of Dragon Girl.

“Oh, Hey.” He nervously waves with his good arm.

“Hello! Good morning! Welcome to Jeju Island!” It was now DG’s mom’s turn to be embarrassing to their children, speaking in a heavily non-english speaking accent. Not that June was much embarrassed- once she was in the garden, it seemed no time passed before a waffle and a piece of bacon found its way into June’s mouth, the superhero relaxing and sampling the buffet early.

She scolded June in Korean, right as she opened her first bottle of milk from the cooler. “Be polite June, let’s wait for our guests to eat first.” She then turned to Deimos’s parents. “June very lack manner when hungry. So sorry!”

“Oh yeah that’s me. No manners June.” June agreed. Food trumped decorum. She waved Deimos to come to the buffet. It was apparent to all the Dragon Girl was famished. “Guys, Deimos, come on let’s eat so we can get this vacation started.”

“I am Juri Yeong. Mother of June. You are new friend of June.” She explained, then stated the obvious.

Deimos was unusually quiet, with a semi-glazed look in his eyes.

Oh, no worries. Deimos is also rude when he’s tired.” Kathy scolds. It takes the very groggy half dragon a second to process to which he snaps back to reality for a moment.

“Yeah, hi, I’m Deimos. I met June in Jagarata… three days ago?” Deimos counts back in his head as accurately as he could. The half dragon did quite like Juri, she seemed a lot like a mellowed out Kathy. Were all the women who took care of baby half dragons as nice as saints?

“I’m Kathy, this is my husband Ed, you’ve met our son, Deimos. Very nice to meet you!” Meanwhile Ed also goes for a handshake and a very warm “Howdy.”

Deimos could see his mother was going to talk this poor woman’s ear off, so he may as well sneak off while their parents talked. As he gets to the table, he makes a hand motion and speaks a few draconic incantations and a plate and fork begin floating by itself. It picks up some waffles, several sausages and bacon,  and some pork teriyaki.. And a tiny bit of kimchi.

“Never tried Kimchi before.” The mage laughs as he finds himself a jug of orange juice. The floating plate pulled itself around him and the fork brought him a big hunk of sausage.

“So how’s the last few days been on your end?” He asks, trying to ignore the fact his mother had already pulled the baby pictures from her purse. God, he hated it when she showed baby pictures.

"Oh. Just some boring debriefs with the army. I went for a swim yesterday... Uh... how about you? The healing tank not too weird for you right? er uh.... you swim, Deimos?" June tumbled a bit. It was refreshing to be just talking and not overthrowing military dictatorships.  

Juri scooted closer to look "Oooh! baby pictures. So cuuuute! Wish had some. But Juri left them in Pyonyang." she said, either unconsciously or uncaringly mentioning her origin point. That was definitely a pandora's box begging to be opened- that Asian Democracy's greatest champion came from that awful place.  Then she pored over Deimos's embarrassing moments in life.

June just gave Deimos a blank stare when Pyongyang was mentioned, instead munching on some bacon.

Deimos gave a subtle shrug at the idea of going for a swim. “Heh, not necessarily swim per-say. Sink is a better term for what I do. The ship wasn’t too bad, even if I don’t remember most of it. Hospital drugs.” With a flippant gesture with his fork as he downed a hunk of kimchi, half expecting it to be spicy for some reason, yet was pleasantly surprised by the oddly unique taste. Meanwhile his parents hadn’t seemed to notice the mention of Ponyang, almost as if she’d said she was from some small town in South Korea.

Seemed they didn’t recognize the place as communist-ville.

Meanwhile Deimos gave a half-shrug, not necessarily dwelling on it, just choosing to combat June’s blank stare with one of his own as his mom shamelessly showed this woman his bare baby ass. “Fuel my morbid curiosity though. You’re the only other half dragon I’ve ever met. Did you look like a human as a baby, or were you like me?”

Deimos leans over to swipe one of the less embarrassing polaroids off his mother’s table. It was the typical crib snapshot, but instead of a bouncing baby boy, there was a small, scaleless, lizard. Toothless, hornless, wingless, completely defenseless in every way and perhaps even still a bit wet from the egg. None-the-less Kathy did have him in a pair of blue footy pajamas and was snuggled up with an oversized fuzzy rhinoceros.

So they were going to do the dragon talk. Well it was about time. June was surprised looking at the baby lizard Deimos. "Ohohoho! what a cute little baby gecko!" She joked, then pondered the question. "...Pretty sure I..."

June raised her voice and asked her mother in korean. "Ma! Did I hatch from an egg?"

"Nooo! you were the cutest little baby when your were born! Heaven forbid i lay an egg!" Juri answered cheerily, glad that she had a dragon friend now. Juri gave Deimos a hearty smile, before turning to Kathy and giving her the summary of a loony land of absolute dictators, dear leaders, labor camps, absolute loyalty to the leader, and her early career as a North Korean gymnast-Olympian.

June confirms her guess with her mother's statement. "Huh. Live birth. Half Dragon biology is so weird. Maybe it depends on the mother? It's as weird as me going from 200 pounds to 20 tons. Maybe we mentally pick which form is our 'real' form?" June commented, truly the dragon part of their life making things so much more complicated.

"...Far as mom and I are concerned, the first time I turned into a dragon... Yeah I was attending public school. I was ten years old, It was raining outside and I was the happiest I ever been splashing in the puddles." June said with a reminiscing smile.

"...And then. The school's mean girl, a total bitch named Sun-mi, and her two friends called out to me from the hallway. I don't remember why, they just dumped all my textbooks into the puddle then pushed me down. I was bawling my eyes out- we were poor being North Korean refugees- and she even taunted me, 'North Koreans are all thieves and spies'."

"I wanted to get back at them but there was three of them and I hadn't had my growth spurt yet. And then ... and then I got real mad... Next thing I knew I was outside the restaurant mom was working as a cook. They told me I had transformed into a dragon, about the size of a Honda City, trashed those bullies' stuff, threw Sun-mi into the puddle, terrorized the block my school was on and I'd eaten all my mom's spicy sweet fried chicken. Like. 10 whole chickens worth. Oh man." June was telling the story with a cheerful tune, looking back at it now with nostalgia.

Deimos gave a light shrug, but now that June mentioned it, perhaps the order or parentage truly did matter more than he suspected. Sure it made sense that June’s mother wouldn’t lay an egg, regardless of the father, and same with a dragonelle having a live birth. Perhaps it could also explain the size situation. June was quite large in comparison, but then again he would expect it to be the other way around.

“I do understand the picking a form deal. Being a human feels a bit constraining sometimes. But it is impractical to be comfortable all the time. Doors too small and all.” With a light laugh he munches down another sausage. He then busts out laughing at the idea of a miniature dragon rampaging down a block and choking down more chicken than humanly possible.

“Bitch had it coming.” Deimos adds. “So, anger induced transformation? Interesting. I turned human for the first time at three. But I couldn’t stay that way long. Public school kindergarten went great though. Until middle school.” Deimos cringes a bit as he points to the back of the little baby gekko. “Notice… no wings. Those came in in middle school. Along with everything else the wonderful age of twelve brings, I found out that I did in fact have wings… they were just under my skin. Which led to about three weeks of hell.”

“Hah, so I’m also wondering if you can do the telepathy thing to? So far it only works on other dragons and my parents. So perhaps is a species and super personal thing? I don’t know, but it’s actually how my mother would speak to me in the egg. It’s why I know what she looks like, sounds like. It does feel like I know her. One of the benefits of being in an egg I assume. I hatched already understanding speech and knowing some idea of the world.”

June visualized having wings inside your body then only later in life busting out. "That has got to be painful. Again. Weird biology. Never heard of animals with internal wings... You didn't even turn into a cocoon or something?" She joked, trying to get some kind of reference in the natural kingdom. After all, her dragon form had a lot in common with sharks.

"Uhh... how do I describe it? Telepathy and me is like, trying to use your phone in the basement. It might work but you really gotta look for the signal." June sighed. She wanted to use the telepathic link these raised dragons did. "Guess I'll have to settle for unlimited global internet and 2160p video."

"So anyway. Where IS your mother? How'd your parents adopt you? Some kind of real bad situation must have happened for a dragon to drop their kid off."

“I feel like a cocoon would have made it easier.” Deimos laughs, suddenly feeling jealous of creatures who got that luxury. He assumed it’d just be making your own blanket and going to sleep, then waking up with wings with minimal problems.

With a light nod, Deimos tried to imagine what his telepathy felt like for her. She did obviously get some of what he had sent her bag in Jaguarta, but it made sense if it was a bit off. “That makes sense. Maybe we can work at it and it will get better? You’re the only other person it’s actually worked on besides my parents.”

The thought of what happened to mom had him searching his mind for how exactly to interpret what he’d been shown as a baby in rushed pictures as he was whisked away. “It’s a very long ordeal as to how that happened. And I’m still a bit fuzzy on the exact details. But from what I could comprehend was that my father wasn’t exactly completely honest about the relationship. Apparently some mages use dragons for magic components or something. My father had the bright idea that instead of trying to kill a dragon or steal a baby from a nest he’d just father one under false pretenses and take his own child. My mother found out about the plan both too late and just in time as she was able to get me out of the palace and off the planet entirely as she dismissed her entire court before she confronted him.”

With a light shrug he picks at another piece of Kimchi as the pictures begin coming back to him. “As far as I know, neither survived the confrontation as neither have come to find me, but I was dropped on Kathy and Ed’s front door in a basket with quite a bit of gold coinage in the bottom of it to cover expenses. I know ‘home’ is technically another dimension, but…I think she sealed it. I’ve tried everything I know to access it, but nothing works. Even if she did survive the fight, I doubt she’d be able to leave to come find me.”

"Yeah. And we should enroll you on the Global Defense Network, so you're up to speed at least against threats. Metahuman good samaritan clause basically." June listened intently to Deimos's tale,

"Man. that sucks. Seems people just wanna use Dragons. Seems the world is really messed up by bad parenting." She commented, doing her best pointed out across the sea, towards the horizon in the north.

"Since mom's talking about ... where we're really from... my story's not much better. The Yeong family used to be high up and cozy in the Dear Leader's circle. Mom was the North's gymnastics princess, getting the country medals and coming back home when athletes tend to defect. Made her a political pawn in their deadly decadent court games..."

June paused, as she had to take out her mobile device to bring up a picture on her screen of a particularly nasty looking North Korean in uniform. He had an ugly scar on the side of his face, from chemical burns. His eyes screamed evil.

"...Then one day she was put in an arranged marriage with one Kim-Yeon Choi. aka. Major Gas. or Lieutenant Gas, before I was born. It was an honorable match, as he was one of the people in their Metahuman program. A genius chemist and biologist. This guy was almost my father, something that makes my skin crawl."

"The director before him was some Colonel who got his appointment from the Leader, and he was focused more on optics than actual results. As is typical of the situation, Gas was a massive threat to his pension, and constantly worked the lash on him and stole his work. But Gas was relentless and everyone knew it was only a matter of time before his ass was done."

"So. As a huge middle finger to Gas... I don't know about this part... but he managed to get my father, the alleged dragon, also possibly a wizard- to deal him the ultimate humiliation. Mom told me about a time when Gas was... different. Attentive, loving, then other days his usual abusive and neglectful self. Now, Mom wasn't an airhead, and once she realized she was pregnant she made my father cough up the truth. He'd been paid to cuck Gas, but... he also said, he loved my mom, so he didn't just hit it and quit it."

Deimos had been listening whilst drinking some orange juice, only to immediately cough on it as June brought up some kind of global defense team or something. All he heard was superherodom and it made his mind short circuit for a few seconds. No way in hell was he doing any kind of permanent superhero gig. No capes, no spandex, no running about the galaxy with all manner of daring-do and most of all no media. He got chills just thinking about some new crew shoving their cameras in his face and having to deal with people all up in his personal business all the time.

He buries the feeling as June talks about her origin, only cracking a smile as his mind couldn’t help but catch the ‘major gas’ thing. “Your mom escaped North Korea with a half-dragon baby? Your mom might be one of the biggest badasses I’ve ever seen.” Deimos had an appreciation for the underpowered. To him a regular woman with no powers other than her will to protect her child was far more impressive than any catastrophe stopping hero.

“So did your mother ever happen to get a name for this dragon? If she managed to get his draconic name I might be able to do a bit of research.” Deimos begins to think back to some of the ice dragon lineage from home. The current head was a female named Xolar, but her father before her, Abraxis, didn't fit the bill. In fact, Abraxis was likely dead before any of this started and he was unaware of any progeny other than Xolar. Perhaps there was an offshoot of the line somewhere he couldn’t recall. It would however, mean that June and Deimos were distantly related as Abraxis was the son of his mother’s brother.

“About the global defense network. I um.” Deimos ducks his head a bit sheepishly not really knowing what to tell June. On one hand, being a super hero was literally his worst nightmare. On the other hand, June was apparently doing all the hero things and he didn’t really want to let the only other half dragon he’d ever met do dangerous things by herself. She was obviously more than capable of it but he wouldn’t mind doing work like they had in Jagarata. “I don’t really do the hero thing.”


“You’d be damned good at it!” Kathy chirps having overheard the dreaded ‘H’ word.

“Oh god not this again.’ Deimos mutters. “Gonna be a pharmacist mom. A safe, normal, pharmacist… who doesn’t have media attention 24/7.”

Seeing as that seemed to satiate his mom a bit he lowers his voice a bit. “I, however, wouldn’t mind dealing with ‘threats’ so long as it’s with you and I don’t have to deal with…” He notices his bottle of orange juice has a nice endorsement from some kind of spandex laden hero. “So long as I don’t have to deal with this.”

June nodded in agreement over her mother. “It’s kinda cliché. But mom is my superhero. To be fair, I doubt life in North Korea as the mother of a metahuman was going to get any better. They figure you lay one golden egg; they get you to keep laying.” She sighed, remembering the worst stories intelligence fed her, the time they did raid a North Korean base.

“That… damn… North… program. Probably one of the things they’re ahead of, seeing they have zero morals forcing women to be super baby factories. I met Gas once. Once. He'd kidnapped some of the South's heroes. He was just some guy with chemicals... what I saw there, it changed me. I never killed a human being until Gas. Never knew how much blood was in a human body, how easy it was to snap bones. He was still somehow the vilest thing I’ve ever fought. Worse, We've got news he's survived.”

The conversation eventually went to June’s father, the absentee actor in this story. She had never given thought or form to her father. To June, she had one parent: Juri Yeong. “A man… dragon… whatever… who just gets girls pregnant and doesn’t bother to even see them grow up. In psychology those are commitment averse individuals. To me, a deadbeat. I’m the putting in the years in the Navy to get our pension.”

June said, then silence followed for a few uncomfortable seconds. Thinking of the father who left her, and the potential father who might've raised her to be a killer, she turns away to avoid showing the tear in her eye. June then retrieves the small necklace from around her neck, hands it to Deimos. “Mom gave this to me when I turned 18, probably the only keepsake l have of my father. I don’t know the inscription. Do you?”

It was a small dragon trinket, intricate and golden. It was a simple child’s puzzle, but it was in Draconic. Simply spelling out ‘Storm’, would open it. This explained why neither of them knew what was really inside. “To my Northeastern wind, Juri, and my Southwestern wind, Ja-eun. My love for you, roils forever, at the highest slopes of the kingdom of Goryo (Korea). Au Soon, Lord of the East Wind, the Storm Bringer.”

While Deimos fiddled with the necklace, June continued to keep the conversation rolling. "Well I can respect that- in the first place, I grew up in a country where we've been waiting for the war to resume for the last half century. But..." June thought a moment.

"...Maybe you'd be interested to know GDN (Global Defense Network) has covert agents as well."

Deimos listens intently, only gaining from it that he was incredibly glad that June and her mother made it out of the North Korean hellscape. He really wasn’t one for the heroing business… but he was really beginning to want to help June get her hands on this Gas asshole, and to make sure he didn’t get away again. He did however perk at the idea of June’s draconic father. He could understand the feeling of abandonment, he felt it too with his own human father at times, even if he had literally tried to kill him in the nest and it had cost him his other parent.


He takes the necklace, turning the figurine over to admire the handiwork. He recognized the craftsmanship vaguely, however not from his own eyes. A very vague vision fed to him in the egg had entire marble columns laced in the colden patterns similar to the ones on this dragon. “Oh, It’s in draconic.” He had forgotten that June was never taught draconic, and it made sense her mother didn’t know it either. With a metal fork he begins to etch a few symbol into the wood of the table which begin to glow the signature blue crackle of his magic as he writes out ‘Kespek’ in odd characters that almost looked like they could have been Greek. Draconic letters had very few curves or circles as it was meant to be carved with one’s claws rather than written with a quill.

He almost jumped as the thing popped open, he was pretty sure that would work but, it was a matter of suspense. After taking a second to read he pulls a small notebook out of his back pocket and writes the perfect english translation inside and slides it to June. “It’s a child’s toy. Often given to hatchlings if you know you won’t be around when they are hatched… or in case you don’t think you can come back for whatever reason.” On a different paper he takes note of the name and the title.

“I’m going to do a bit of research here, I do feel like there is some magic attached to this, more so than just the riddle but I can’t identify it off the top of my head. But we have a name now. And I think a location. Where is Goryeo?” Deimos asks as he hands the necklace back. “If covert can help with this, I will do it.” He mentions the necklace. “As well as giving the middle finger to North Korea, But if we go down that road, I’d prefer to work with you.”

Seeing Deimos rather casually unlocking the locket put genuine surprise on June’s face. After receiving the translation and giving it a quick scan, June’s mundane Korean history came into play with the translation. “We are… Goryo is the old name for Korea. Goryo. Korea. Hear the similarity? The whole peninsula before this north and south business.”

June read the note, and more than once, given the amount of time she spent on it. She was looking it over like something incredible, something of such revelation was in her locket. “The highest mountain in Korea is Hallasan… no that’s the South. On the entire Peninsula is … Mount Paektu, in the North.”

“Aun Soon. So, after all these years…” June covered her mouth with the back of her hand. It was at this point June came over to grabbed Deimos in a big embrace. She sounded on the verge of tears. “Thank you.” She then switched to logical June. “No… there’s no way I can visit Paektu though, without starting something with the North. Or losing my job.” She paused a bit, before adding to that sentence. “Visit in a official capacity anyway.” She smirked.

Their conversation was interrupted when June stretched her arm out and grasped at the air, all of a sudden. The air turned out to not be so empty when, two seconds later, some person in full commando gear and carrying a training rifle shifted into visibility, attempting to get his rifle back, trying to side kick her in the shins. As he was merely a highly trained human soldier, it availed him nothing. June had grabbed the orange tipped M4 and lightly tapped the invisible commando on the head.

“Nice try, but you’re still way too lame to sneak up on me.” June told the commando, or rather, the commandos, as a handful of invisible operatives decloaked, standing between five and ten feet around them. “Hello!” One of the commandos, a female, tapped Deimos on the shoulder, as a consolation.

“I thought we had it for sure this time!” The commando said, removing his visor and mask.

“That’s alright. This time we came closer. Didn’t we, Ensign?” one of the operatives was an older Korean man, a short and stout figure with silvery hair and a scar on his face. He replaces his mask with a black beret.

“Sure did.” June agreed, then saluted the older man. Then giving him a hug, which he heartily returned with back pats.

“I am Colonel Park. Pleasure to meet friend of June’s. I saw you in action in Jagarata. You make fine operative. I hope you're not planning anything... illegal and dangerous.” He offered a hand to shake Deimos’s, even though he'd heard their conversation.