Hudson River Dragon.

I dropped Quentin's teeth into the holes in the manhole cover in the Hudson flood zone and waited a moment.

The teeth tumbled down, some plopping into the water, another two hitting the floor and almost on cue, the manhole cover flipped open with a thud.

"Enter." An ancient voice called out from within, echoing out across the tunnels beneath our feet.

I gestured at the rest to follow as I climbed down.

"Why does the dragon need my teeth anyway?" Quentin massaged his gums as we climbed down the tunnels beneath the Hudson River in New York to meet the Hudson River Dragon for our passage to the underworld.

"The dragon likes baby teeth. It's a.....hobby. She's old. Really old. Beings like that can be eccentric." I explained, looking around in the dark as we walked towards a faint light in the distance.

A magical lantern hung in the tunnel walls and lit up an archway into a grand cavern further below.

"Okay, now remember. Let me do the talking and follow instructions. Do not make any comments to piss her off. We cannot afford to fight a Dragon in here. Or up there for that matter. Dragons are very, very powerful. So keep your pieholes stuffed. Got it? Looking at you, Q."

"Why do you always pick on me?" He huffed as Alice and Julia giggled.

All around us I saw precious artwork, piles of gold and jewels strewn about bolts of silk and linen, dyed into beautiful tapestries, draped over the hoard carelessly.

There was the odd ornate sword sticking out of the rubble, a handful of muskets, even the one used by Napoleon himself that I recognised.

A Van Gogh here, a Michaelangelo there.

There was even a boat and one of the pillars from Posiedon's temple in Atlantis if the engraving on it was anything to go by.

A truly magnificent hoard.

"I'm glad you like it." A soft voice echoed, as two flaming orbs lit up in the shadows, slithering about as silently as a forty feet monstrosity can.

"Speak." She ordered, "What do you seek, elderling?"

Yue squeaked in excitement at seeing th dragon rear it's head into the light, and I smiled, rubbing her head.

So cute!

"We seek passage into the underworld." I stepped forward, "A two way passage. We hope to return as well."

"Is that all?" She looked disappointed.

"Yes?" I tilted my head in confusion, "Did I say something wrong?"

"No." The Dragon's voice softened and she sighed.

"When I heard about the elderling that had befriended the East River Dragon was coming to meet me, I had hoped for something.... Better. Interesting, in a word. But you are so utterly dull...."

"Oh, you have heard of me?" I was surprised.

"Word travels fast in our community." She gave me an expectant look.

"Do you want a universal translater too?" I asked.

"I would not mind if you offered it up in appreciation of my beauty." She said shyly, looking away.

Was she jealous of her fellow dragon?

Ehehehehe.

How cute.

"You need only ask." I pulled out a translator I had made beforehand.

I figured this might happen.

And what do you know.

The dragon snatched it up, admiring it curiously.

"How do you use it?" She asked.

"Say User Manual."

"User Manual." The dragon repeated and a holoscreen popped up from it.

"That's how. For languages, just say 'Translate A to B' and it will do the job so long as you have a wifi connection."

The dragon nodded and stuffed it away carefully on a pile behind her.

"Very well. Now, you wanted to go to the Underworld?"

"Yes. But not me and her. Just these three. If you will give us a minute I'll prepare them for the journey."

She scoffed snorting a bit of flame.

"Suit youself. You have one minute."

I turned to them.

"Alright. You guys know the deal."

"Yeah. We go in, meet up with my.... friends in the bowling alley." Julia said.

"Yes. Now remember, you only have 24 hours, so you'll split into groups. Alice and Quentin will go to Elysium and bring back Charlie's shade. Alice?"

Alice nodded and stepped forward.

"Remember why you're doing this. Remember that feeling. Your love for your brother. Hold on to it." I told her as I raised my hands and cast the morality spell I made for Charlie on her.

Without her shade, she would be immoral to the max, probably jeopardize the whole mission.

To keep that in check, I applied the morality spell on her.

The morality spell done, I gave her a questioning look.

"Ready?"

She took a deep, nervous breath and nodded.

"Yes. Do it."

I extended a glowing hand to her chest, phasing through her shirt and reaching between her sizable breasts and with a forceful jab, dug in.

She gasped a bit as my hand pierced her, quivering and shaking unsteady on her feet.

Quentin immediately moved to help support her but I was faster.

I put a hand around her hip and watched her blush a bit.

Nice.

Maybe I'll get her too on the way out. The only reason I hadn't made a move on her was because I wanted Quentin to develop in a certain direction so he could get me the Leo Blade.

Now that I had the Leo Blade, I didn't really have anything stopping me from wooing her.

Yeah. I'll make her mine. Later.

Cutting right into her soul with the spell I took from the Beast's memories on soul manipulation, I carefully parsed through it's many components till I found a bit glowing nice and warm.

Yeah. This is it.

Her shade.

The conscience of humanity.

The part of your soul that makes you, you.

Human.

That separates you from your evil and beastly nature.

You see, one person can't have more than one shade in them. And shades aren't exactly stable at room temperature.

So to smuggle out a shade from the underworld, you can't just grab it at walk out.

You need someone to go in without one, stashing the foreign shade inside the shade shaped hole in their soul and then smuggle it out.

Gently, I tugged at it and it came free, it's bonds to the rest of the soul broken, dissolved into nothing.

Pulling it out, I gestured at Yue, calling her over.

She walked over to me carrying a mason jar I had made, lined with a spiritron repellent solution and reinforced with a tactile forcefield, custom designed to contain and preserve shades.

"There we go. How are you feeling?" I asked.

"Free. This... This feels worng and yet so, so right. Is this what it's like to not be bound down by doubt and emotions? Tss!" Suddenly the morality spell activated, stinging her.

"Piece of poop!" She cursed.

"Keep an eye on her, will you?" I asked of Quentin.

"I will." He grabbed her hand, but she shook it off in disgust.

"I'll try." He amended and I chuckled, patting his back.

"Do your best." I said, and stealthily attached a patch to his soul.

Another recent invention.

The little packet of spiritrons contained a condensed, highly dense cartography setup, conplete with spirtron trackers and an improvised GPS computer to ping the Underworld's coordinates to me.

All I needed was for Quentin to walk into the lobby and my trackers would do the rest. And once I had the coordinates of the underworld?

I'll make Hades my bitch.

Hehehehehhehe.

I can't wait.

"Alright. Julia, you know what to do too, yes?"

"Yeah. I'll find a way out and get a plant native to the underworld." She replied.

"Yes. Once we have that, we can use it as a medium to banish Reynard to the Underworld." I bullshitted.

She was just going there to lube the interaction between her friends who had mapped out the underworld and Quentin and co.

But, just to be safe, I had sent her on a wild goose chase for a 'necessary ingredient for the banishing spell' so she didn't start having any suspicious ideas.

"They're ready." I alerted the dragon and stepped back with Yue.

"About time." The dragon leaned forward, towering over the three and took in a deep breath.

"You have 24 hours. Beyond that, you will truly be dead." She warned again.

They nodded and she came face to face with them, breathing out a cloud of smoke and cinder over them as they fell to the floor with a thud like sacks of rice, a stream of golden particles exited their bodies, disappearing into the smoke.

"Well then.... I'll be back tomorrow to collect them?"

"You will, if you don't want them turned into breakfast." She replied.

I chuckled.

"Yes. Yes I will." I grabbed Yue's hand and bowed before teleporting away.

There was just one more thing to do today.

One more thing the email from my clones had provided for me.

The locations of Wanda's shattered reflections in the mirror world.

And all I needed was a beacon to locate them. Then, it was as simple as pulling her out and merging her with my divine power.

All in a days work.

_________________

Next time, Wanda returns.

Till then thanks for reading.

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Bye~