"Yeah, its not too far from here."

The cyborg told Hugo the pathway to the nearest elevator to take them to the guest quarters they had been assigned--from the sounds of it, he already knew of their situation.

"Thanks. I'll catch you later."

As Hugo walked off, Matt fell into place by his side. "I'll be back, I'm gonna set down my stuff."

"Well, I best be going. My technicians get testy when I'm late," Jared said in a friendly manner, patting his ex-girlfriend on the shoulder, who smiled back. "Catch you guys later."

"Bye, Jared!" Alasea said, waving to him as he strode down the hallway and turned the corner.

"He's not that bad looking," Helena said, after Jared was out of earshot. "For a cyborg, that is."

Edited by The Helldragon on May 17, 2009 at 20:45:10.

"Yeah, he was a pretty good catch back in high school," Alasea agreed with a nod.

R.D. resisted the urge to snort derisively. As they followed Matt and Hugo, Ileyna slowly eased herself out from behind Helena, now that the armored stranger was gone.

The quarters were lined with short rows of blocky, uniform beds draped in white sheets. Matt had claimed a bed against the wall, perched on the edge and slamming buttons on his portable game as the rest of the group entered.

"No no no no no!" he shouted. "FUCK!" He chucked the game on the bed and it bounced, stopping just before it cracked into the wall.

"Lost again, did you?" R.D. asked, dropping his satchel on one of the bunks before sitting down on the mattress itself.

"This game's a fuckin' cheater," Matt said.

Helena pulled off her shoes and faced their heels toward the wall. "Just take a break from it for a while."

"That's how I take breaks when games piss me off. I chuck them across the room."

Gingerly, Alasea picked the handheld game console up off of the bed and sat down on it, finding that it hadn't turned off when Matt threw it onto the bed.

"Hmm."

As she began playing the game herself, Ileyna pulled herself up onto the mattress and sat down next to her, leaning over to watch as Alasea played. After several minutes of various sound effects coming from the game, the Daughter of Dawn stopped and handed it back to Matt.

"There you go," she said with a smile. On the game, it showed that she had easily overcome Matt's difficulties.

"WHAT THE FUCK?! HOW COME YOU CAN BEAT IT BUT I CAN'T?!"

"Language, Matt," Alasea admonished, discreetly pointing to the girl on the bed, who only looked wide-eyed at the outburst. "And it was rather simple. All you needed to do..."

The girl went on to explain just how she beat the challenge, listing in detail what she did, and what mistakes Matt may (and probably) have made.

"I WAS DOING THAT!" Matt shouted, jabbing his fingers at his chest.

Having laid down, Helena threw up her hands toward the ceiling. "Would you quit screaming? It's over now."

"Oh no no no no no, I'm not accepting this!" Matt jabbed the console with his finger. "I'm gonna beat this game myself, you hear me? I will make it my...w-well, you know."

R.D. rolled his eyes. "Beat it later, then," he muttered. "I don't want the General chewing us out because you couldn't protect the Essence due to a lack of sleep. All because of a game you can't beat."

"You're right." Matt flicked his thumb across the edge of the console, shutting it off. "I will destroy it later."

"Good," Hugo said. "Now be quiet, I'm trying to sleep."

The group settled down, and night passed without incident. In the morning, the six of them were all rudely woken up at the standard times, as the base personnel assembled to go about their daily tasks.

R.D. yawned and stretched as he walked with the others down the passageway to the mess hall. "Man, that was the most annoying alarm ever. Even worse than the one Matt made when we were looking for the final Gateway," he commented.

"Maybe you should learn to wake up at five like I do," Matt said.

Helena slouched forward as she walked, her eyes fighting to open. "Be quiet for a bit," she mumbled.

"Sorry, Helena," R.D. apologized before quieting. Behind him, Ileyna yawned once, then took Alasea's proffered hand.

After a bit of walking, they arrived at the mess hall, which was mostly full of talking and eating servicemen. They filed up in line to get the slop that would be their breakfast for the day, then looked about.

"Hey, look's like Rodeo and them are over there," R.D. said, nodding in their direction. "Want to go hang out with them?"

"Not really," Hugo said.

"You are a spoilsport," Matt said. He looked at his slop and fought the urge to make a recoiling face.

Luck was not on Hugo's side that morning. As the group went one of the mostly unoccupied tables, Rodeo called out to them as they passed by.

"Hey guys! C'mon over!" he said jovially, waving them over.

Matt walked over and plopped his tray down on the table, as far opposite of Rodeo as possible. "Ahoy hoy."

Hugo kept walking towards another corner. "You have fun."

"Yeah, you boys enjoy yourselves," Alasea said, following Hugo's lead. "Me, Ileyna, and Helena will be over here."

And with that, the girls walked off, leaving R.D. and Matt to wonder what in the hell just happened.

"Wow, that was cold," Rodeo laughed. "You guys do poorly with your girlfriends last night?"

Matt took a deep breath as he watched the girls leave, let out a calm sigh. "Helena's not my girlfriend, Rodeo."

"Really? Well, too bad, I guess," Rodeo said before turning back to the table. "Hey, Chico! Looks like you're in the clear, that Helena chick's available!"

"Really? Sweet!" came the response from Chico.

There was an audible thwack as Maria slapped Chico upside the head, causing him to yelp in pain. "Idiot," she muttered before going back to her breakfast.

Edited by RisingDragon on May 18, 2009 at 20:07:25.

Matt turned around with a grin. "Oh, yeah, Chico! She's all yours." He leaned on the table, pushing off with his elbows until he loomed over the Latino. "She's got a lot of interesting things about her, you know." Closer, until they were eye to eye. "Things that only brave men know how to deal with."

Now his tone was flat, tinged with bare unpleasantness. "Things that men might die over."

"Dude, chill," the pilot said, holding up both hands. "It's just a joke."

R.D. pulled Matt back by the collar of his prized white jacket. "Knock it off, Matt. You're making the guards look this way."

The Magma Dragon regarded Seril briefly for a moment as she deferred, then suddenly snapped his gaze upwards as Gatz slid down the wall. Its gaze narrowed slightly as it watched, until Gatz dropped down beside the dragon that had called to it. A blackened tongue rapidly licked out across the rough edges of the dragon's mouth, leaving reddish-orange saliva to splash down onto the ground, sizzling in the intense heat.

Luckily, the creature made no threatening move towards Gatz. Relaxing its stance, it made a similar lowing of its head towards Seril, allowing her to relax and raise her head back up. Its mouth moved a bit, and then it began to speak.

"One doesn't see much of your kind these days," it said in a deep rumble. "I was under the impression that the rest of the Tribes had taken flight to Atlantis."

"Our presence there has come to an end," Seril said. "The Final Rise has come, and the Drake of Braves has been born. Sheena has fallen at the hands of a human."

"A human? How amusing," it replied. "So, the Secret chose a human to be the vessel of its power."

"Not just any human. This one underwent the binding with our former King."

Eyes suddenly flared, as if fire burst out from them. "Him? He was chosen to be the Drake of Braves!?"

"Yes. It is unusual, but Tamaran must have some reason for making such an unusual alliance."

"Preposterous. Tamaran only ever allied itself with the helpless. That one is far from helpless," the Magma Dragon growled, then looked down slightly. "Though I suppose it doesn't matter. The past grievances have been avenged. Tell me, youngling, why have you come to my Weyr, with Ancients as your company?"

"The Ancients seek a computer terminal that lies somewhere around here. We decided to see if you would be willing to help us locate it, by quelling the rage of the planet's blood."

"Very well, youngling," the Magma Dragon replied, folding its wings against its sides. "This will not be easy. The planet does not respond to our cry as easily as it did."

"We know," Seril said. "The Nature Elemental has been awakened."

"Let us pray that someone will have the decency to put her back to sleep," the blazing creature growled. "Come. I shall take you to the terminal that the Ancients seek."

Seril quickly transformed, returning to her humanoid form before moving off to the side of the tunnel, motioning for Gatz to follow suit. Magma Dragons did not possess the ability to transform into a human state like other dragons did. The towering beast stepped past, causing the ground to shake with each footstep. Once past, Seril began to follow--at the creature's slow pace, it was easy to keep up.

"I heard that there are various mechaniloids guarding this area," Seril spoke up, looking at the Magma Dragon. "Will they pose a problem to us?"

"No, they won't," the Magma Dragon growled. "I do not take kindly to hostile intruders in my Weyr."

Leaning to the side, Seril saw why. Ahead, along the path of the tunnel, was a trail of destruction. All over the place was gouges from claws and smoothed out recesses where intense flame had melted through the rock. Littered in the floor was the wreckage of countless machines.

"It took a while to locate them, but I found the production facilities that were reproducing them," the creature spat out. "This place has been sanitized of such machines."