? - Chapter 59

Mr. Dragon's jaw sort of dropped. He had to close it with a hand after he realized it gaping wide open.
Although his face was still bloodied and badly disfigured, Mr. North laughed like he never did before. Mr Dragon shot out his chair, tipping it over in the process, and grabbed for Mr. North's throat. Mr. North, his hands tied to his chair, couldn't do anything about it.
Mr. Dragon strangled Mr. North for only a few seconds, and Mr. North's face was being drained of color, when Mr. Dragon's phone rang.
'Jesus H. Christ!' Mr. Dragon roared in his furious voice, his let go of Mr. North's neck and turned around to his desk to pick up the phone.
'Who the FUCK is this?' Mr. Dragon raged into the phone, his face swelling a brilliant red, emphasizing the swear word in the sentence, which is uncharacteristic of him, because he was was usually a morally principled evildoer who used swear words sparsely, preferring action over blowing steam.
'Woah, Dragon, it sounds like your head is exploding over there!' The voice in the receiver said.
'WHO IS THIS!' Mr. Dragon roared into the speaker.
'It's T-Rex, at your service.'
'Alligator? Is that you?'
'No, no, no, I'm not The Alligator anymore, that's so not a cool codename, I am now THE TYRANNOSAURUS REX!' Mr. T-Rex said excitedly.
Mr. Dragon covered up the receiver with his hand and snickered into his sleeve, barely containing his laughter. Finally collecting his composure, he spoke into the phone. 'You know, T-Rex, why don't you just settle this codename crisis with the title of Mr. Reptile, since you've been pretty keen on reptilian animal names for the past while.'
For a moment, Mr. T-Rex was delighted at the suggestion. 'Why that's a wonderful...hey, wait a minute, was that an insult?'
'Of course it is!' Mr. Dragon began to laugh right into the speaker, 'T-Rex! Really, in the twenty years we've known each other this has to be funniest name you've retched up thus far, no joke, absolutely not!' Mr. Dragon was in an unnatural fit of giggles and laughter, forgetting entirely that at the moment Mr. North was working on untying his hands from his chair with a splintered fingernail.
'YOU! YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU DAMN YOU YOU...DAMN HERETIC!' Mr. T-Rex protested in frustration, 'IT'S NOT FUNNY! THIS IS NO FUNNY MATTER!'
Mr. Dragon laughed harder. 'Oh my dear T-Rexy, you just made my day!' He slapped his knee in glee.
'IT'S NOT FUNNY I SAID!'
Mr. Dragon was hysterical. He was slamming his fist on his table.
'DAMN YOU IN THE NAME OF SATAN! DAMN YOU!' Mr. T-Rex shouted.
'HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!' Mr. Dragon howled, 'Save your holy damnation for the enemy, Mr. T-Rexy, as for me, I'm not worth your while.'
'Well, now, how about this!' Mr. T-Rex huffed indignantly, 'Just now, your men were machinegunned by an unidentified flying vehicle that resembles the Magic School Bus in a really bad mood, how's that huh? Do I have your attention now?!'
Mr. Dragon laughed some more and then the message began to recall some sense into him. Suddenly, he sat straight up into his chair. 'WHAT DID YOU SAY?' He roared into the speaker.
'Ha! You didn't pay attention, well, TOO BAD FOR YOU MR. DRAGON! Because thanks to your insensitivity, I'm not going to repeat what I just said, how about that, huh? HOW ABOUT THAT!!!'
'MR. T-FUCKING-REX! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY!' Mr. Dragon barked, now furious once again. In the back of his mind, he thought musingly, at this rate, I'll have to start taking anti-bipolar medication. I'm getting too old for this job.
'I'M NOT REPEATING WHAT I JUST SAID, SO HA!' Just like that, Mr. T-Rex slammed his end of the phone and the line went dead, leaving Mr. Dragon itching to skin the man alive when he finds him.
Mr. Dragon was about to leave his office to go after Mr. T-Rex and teach him a lesson when a powerful, solid force struck him at the back his his head, knocking him down flat onto the ground.
Decades of Ancient Eastern Martial Arts training had taught Mr. Dragon to detect such types of attacks at split second notice. The leg of a wooden chair shattered against his skull just as Mr. Dragon braced his cranium from the impact and spun back up to his feet and around to find himself face-to-face with Mr. North, freed from his bounds.
Circling each other for the second time in a week, the two ex-friends and current enemies were all set for round two of an martial arts duel, and this time, Mr. North was out for blood.