This is a tale from the Superhero Bedtime Stories “archives”. I told it to Mark when we were in Greece, September 2022. We were staying near Sarti, town on the second peninsula of Halkidiki.
Across our caravan, we had undisturbed view of the third peninsula and its Holy Mountain, Mount Athos. With the beautiful sea between us and the mountain, sunrise rising behind Athos, getting inspired for a new short bedtime story was easy.
To repeat myself. If you are first time here, keep in mind that I am not a writer, I just pen down the stories that I tell to my son who I love very much. Every night, since he was 1.5yo, I am telling him bedtime stories that I invent by myself. I am inspired by the Marvel Universe (we are both obsessed with it), Myths and other folk tales.
Every night he gets a new story, never a story that has been told.
Superhero Bedtime Stories #2 – Iron Mark & Ancient Greek Dragon
It was a hot summer when Mark and his family were camping in Greece with their small caravan called Adria.
As he was sitting by the bon fire and playing with his legos, his eyes drifted towards the horizon where the massive Mount Athos stood proudly.
The reason his attention was moved from his toys to the mountain, was the unfamiliar sound coming from that direction. It sounded like something big was cracking… and cracking it was.
In front of his eyes the to top of the mountain cracked open like a giant egg. Rubble and debris was flying, black cloud spread in every direction as the ancient volcano camouflaged as mountain, erupted for the first time in 4000 years.
It was terrifying scene unfolding, but that wasn’t the scariest moment, trough the thick black clouds a massive form emerged.
Wings wide as a 2 football fields and tail as long a NYC skyscraper can be seen as a shadow. Two burning red orbs appeared trough the smog and Mark quickly saw a shape that was familiar to him. Not something that he has seen before in live, but from a book. It was a dragon!
The God Zeus imprisoned me here 4000 years ago, but now I am back and I will wreak havoc all over these lands! – Said the Dragon in an evil voice.
Mark started running towards his dad, double tapping his nano bots case on the chest.
I must call my friends the Avengers, this isn’t something that I can fix just with my dad! Friday, call the Avengers.
It took the Avengers 15 minutes to arrive and give support. In those 15 long minutes, the massive 4000 year old dragon was flying above the Greek islands, blowing fire and scaring people.
The Avengers gathered in circle and all of them where waiting for Iron Mark to give instructions, it is not an easy task to tackle a full grown dragon that was restrained for 4000 years.
As expected, Mark started shouting smart tactics and soon all the superheroes knew what they need to do.
The main task fell on Spiderman, Hulk and Iron Mark, the rest of the group were supposed to help out the people in need and create distraction.
- Spiderman’s task was to shoot his web at the dragon’s eyes, blocking the dragon’s sight was crucial.
- Iron Mark will be having the most dangerous job. After the dragon is blind, he will need to call Giga Veronica armour (4 times the size of the Hulk buster, supersized armour with special cabin designed for intergalactic wars), jump on top of the dragon’s head, grab it by the ears and try to navigate the beast by doing that, leading it towards the crack of the mountain.
Hulk will be doing the heavy lifting. He is supposed to find a massive rock and when Iron Mark dives the dragon back into the mountain, he will use his strength to throw the rock at the crack and shut the beast inside.
With the plan ready, the Avengers started working for a living.
Everything went as planned. The second group distracted the monster and that gave Spiderman an opening. Peter Parker used Iron Man & War Machine to get higher and shot his spider web straight at the eyes.
Blinded, the dragon was losing altitude and balance. Iron Mark, suited in Giga Veronica, landed on the neck, grabbed the ears and as expected, the dragon started flying in the direction that Mark wanted.
As he was flying the beast towards the crack, he pulled the ears back and the two of them dived towards the opening.
Iron Mark let the dragon dive by it self in the volcanic hole, using his thrusters to fly of the neck in super speed, avoiding the tale on his way up.
The moment Iron Mark was in safe distance from Mount Athos, a giant rock flew towards the crack, shutting it for good.
It will take at least 4000 years before that dragon can hurt the innocents again. – Said Iron Mark.
With the job done, the Avengers left Mark and his family at their camping spot and flew towards the compound in their quinjet
Mark, Tato and Mama, waved at the group of heroes, watched as the jet flew off, passing by the mountain and disappearing in the sunset on the horizon.
After the long day, Mark took a bath, brushed his teeth and went to bed to hear his bedtime story and refuel his energy for the next adventure.
Check out Superhero Bedtime Stories #1 – Iron Mark & the Lighthouse
