"Get out of my kitchen! Go be useful somewhere else!" Yes Damsel."I felt like I had been living with far too many irons in the fire in recent days. It...felt good to finally be pulling some of them out. Getting Vic and the Guard here was a big one. Getting tomorrow's dinner behind us, as well as the examination of the probe would be a couple more.When I'd gone to invite Skydrift Rambol to dinner, I'd had time to check in with Wick and Cap, and they said they had candidates standing by to be. Bare-handed then, my champion against yours." Your champion?" the boy exclaimed. "What a crock! You, girl! You and me!"It appeared then. Thirty feet tall, scarlet red, fanged, clawed, wings perhaps sixty feet long when unfurled.The dragon leaned down and roared in Sixteenth Cousin's face.Sixteenth Cousin wasn't the only person to fall on his ass in the next second.As quickly as the dragon appeared, it was gone. Kennedy bowed her head. "Sorry, my champion got a little ahead of himself. I've told. "We'll be on a surface road that'll take us within eight miles of HQ. We'll go overland from there." They took the exit ramp at a high rate of speed, slowed to make a right turn onto a four lane surface road then roared off."Does it strike you as odd that there are no other cars on this road?" Crystal said."I was wondering the same thing," Derek replied. "They're cooking something up; I'm willing to bet on it." "I won't cover that bet," Crystal laughed. She addressed their passenger "What. Van found out by Dominica having one of her friends call him on the phone to let him know.When he finally managed to talk to her days later, she laughed at his teary pleading for another chance. "Don't take things so seriously Van," had been her last words as she walked away. Van's humiliation was both painful and very public.Dominica's parting shot was advice that Van took to heart. The young romantic became a cynical woman hater over night. He vowed he would never let a girl break his heart.