Yeah, yeah, delayed again, I know. Life caught up to me, again. So, I'm guessing since no-one voiced out how they hated that Dust died, that you all took it pretty well? Well, he ain't coming back, sooooo…yeah. I left last chapter off while Calcite was still stranded in the desert, tired, hungry, thirsty, and wanting to take down Team Black Matter. Things are about to get heated, Calcite's been missing for five whole days, and she's quite injured, how will she make it out of this one?

…

"You can always count on friends,"-C—s—c-t

Chapter Ten: You Can Always Rely On True Friends.

Calcite

It was late at night. Halfway through the fifth night of me being missing. I was exhausted, tired, and mentally out of it. I was still a little shocked, saying many things happened would be the understatement of the century. I was about to collapse into the sand when something caught me. I hazily looked behind me and saw none other than Crescent.
"I thought you may've needed a helping hand," Crescent somberly smirked.

Crescent had teleported us back to my room, where he let me get cleaned up and such.

"One of my colleagues informed me of what happened," Crescent stated.
"Oh," I simply replied, tired out of my mind.
"I'm sorry, I know how it feels, and I've seen it happen many times over," Crescent sighed, giving me a pity smile. I nodded and plopped on my bed.
"I'll let you rest, goodnight Calcite, remember, true friends can always be trusted," and with that, he disappeared, leaving me to the embrace of sleep.

I woke up extremely groggy, and also, very sore. I was able to get myself out of bed and down the stairs, just as Limestone was leaving, he must've not noticed my arrival, his head was hung low. Before I could say anything however, he closed door. I looked at the door dejected. I sighed and walked down the stairs. He needed to be at school anyways. I shook my head and grabbed a quick bite to eat, it was a very big quick bite though…

It was around 12:30 pm before I decided to do something. I decided I was going to walk to my school, but…I couldn't walk around like how I was dressed. I was thinking of solutions when the dragon necklace on my neck started glowing a bright white. When the light died down, everything seemed normal, until I looked at a mirror, while I could still see my new getup, the mirror conveyed a grey sweat shirt, purple pants, black and grey tennis shoes, and light grey socks. I nodded in surprise and walked out of the house, after having to unlock it of course, and then relocking it after I left.

I had a bit of a limp as I walked to school, it seems I took a bit of a beating. I also had noticed before I left the few small scars around my face and snout. Oh well, they weren't too obvious, but they could be seen with little effort. I made it to the school fairly easily, I didn't bother trying to not get noticed by a news crew or police. Whatever, I wouldn't stop for them anyway. I was somewhat fine, though my mental state could be questioned at the moment. If anything actually, Dust's death made me stronger, maybe a little colder, but stronger all together. I walked up to the large set of double doors and opened them with little effort. Of course, security immediately noticed me. I didn't care though, I simply kept walking as I flashed them me ID card the school gives every student. Huh, they must've not seen any news of my disappearance, because they didn't do anything.

I walked the halls and turned to Limestone's class, out of everyone, he needed to see me the most, thankfully for me, he was just exiting for his lunch period. I simply stood at the other end of the hall, right across from the door, as the students left, of course, he was the last one out. I gave a weak smile to him as he exited.
"How's it going?" I chuckled, embracing him in a heartfelt hug. The hall was almost completely silent, students left and right were stunned, the teachers knew not what to do, all that could be heard were Limestone's quiet tears of joy. I didn't care what anyone else thought at the moment, for all I cared, it was just me and Limestone right now, and it stayed like that…for two minutes.

Of course, counselors and teachers wanted to see me constantly, but I declined every invite. I wasn't in the mood. I had a club to visit, I had slipped notes into the lockers of my friends that weren't in the club beforehand as I walked to the club, I made sure I was the last one to arrive.

I opened the door to the club, and arguments had already been sparked. However, when I entered, everything went dead silent.

"Hey," I weakly greeted, Limestone was the first to wave, his eyes were still a little red.

"Where have you been?" Shadow immediately demanded. If anything, he needed to know the most. The others were about to tell him to back off, but I held up my talons.

"We need to talk about this somewhere else, I don't feel it's safe at my house anymore, Crescelia," I turned to my best friend. I had a glint in my eyes.
"We're heading to base," I finished.

We had to take a few cars, with Crescelia leading, for all of us to get to the base. I was the first to get out of any of the cars when we arrived at SWAT Base 87. I opened the doors with a key card and walked in.

As soon as we turned the first corridor, I had to catch a knife thrown at us.
"Eek!" Crescelia screamed.

"Calcite?" Deathbringer asked, dumbfounded at the situation he now found himself in. I gave him a, "we need to talk," glare.

"Clearly," He mumbled, "It's not every-day your recruit gets a few years older," he mumbled as he made a hand motion for us to follow him.

The whole gang was gathered in the "chill room" as Deathbringer put it. I was sitting in the middle of the couch, with Limestone and Crescelia on either side of me. Glory and Deathbringer were leaning on the wall close the couch, facing the flat screen TV. Shadow, Phantom, and Statica were on another couch brought in on to the left of our couch. Mirror and Prism were sitting on two comfy chairs, and Aether was sitting with her back against the wall. Snow, Shell (Shellshocker), and Peril were leaning on the other wall, Peril was twirling, flipping, and catching a knife in one of her talons. I sighed and looked at Peril.
"That'll never not freak me out…" I shuddered, before turning getting up and deciding to instead stand and speak.

"Alright, I'm sure you're all, pretty confused right now," I started, scratching the back of my head. I decided to let the costume go as the new getup was able to be seen by everyone else.
"Ooh, katanas," Deathbringer grinned. Glory elbowed him and glared at her husband. Deathbringer shrugged and turned back to me. I rolled my eyes and sighed.

"I'm about to go into some pretty odd and violent things, are you okay with me going into further detail?" I asked, looking around the room.
"I guess it's worth it," Crescelia shrugged.
"We're ready," Phantom said, it was the most serious I had ever seen him.
"Well, I guess I can be ready for a friend!" Prism beamed. I smiled and looked around the room.

"Okay then, be ready, it started thousands of years ago...,

Two factions were at war, they were both wanting control over the continent of Pyhrria, but for different reasons. Blue Flare, wanting to create a world of only strong dragons, and Black Matter, wanting a world of destruction. However, a new faction rose, gathering civilians and dragons from all walks of life. This was the faction called: Shadow Crystal. Long story short, Black Matter found a weapon, the element crown and took control of the elements, but it was soon destroyed by a hero. Shadow Crystal rose and fell several times, before all three factions seemed to disappear. Let me bring you to a few days ago, it was right after Dust and I decided to hang out. Remnants of Black Matter found us, and imprisoned us. They planned to torture us to death. Dust sacrificed himself (gasping and murmurs), he grabbed a tome I had recently bought, and without really thinking, flipped to a random page, even after being shot several times. He unleashed a spell, and when I came to, Dust was dead. I was so angry, sad, and confused. Dust's spell did something, it made me unlock powers of mine I wouldn't have been able to easily. Let me introduce you to something, I have the two elements of Light and Earth under my protection. Shadow has of course, Darkness and Fire. Anyways, I broke my bonds and had to kill dragons. I changed into this, took the gun of Dust's murderer, and carried Dust's body out of the compound. I blew it up behind me and carried Dust to an oasis, where I buried him. I'm so sorry…I had no idea it would happen," a tear slid down my face as I finished my story, I felt a little weak legged. I sat back down on the couch and hung my head.
"And now you all are in this too…," I mumbled.
"Calcite, all of us would no doubt do anything for you, because you're our friend," Crescelia put her right claws on my back. I sighed and looked up.

"I know, and that just makes it worse, because I don't feel as if most of the dragons in this that came here that weren't already here can't defend themselves as easily...," I shook my head and somberly smiled.
"Well, let's take them down," Peril suddenly spoke.

"Huh?" I questioned.
"You heard me, if Black what's it called wants to mess with you, we're going with you," Peril had an unsettling smiled.

"Yeah!" Snow exclaimed.

"We're not letting you do this alone," Shellshocker nodded.

"Let's go shoot some Black Matter arse!" Deathbringer exclaimed, jumping up and down.
"Black Matter messed with the wrong dragoness," Glory nodded, cracking her knuckles.

"Looks like we're having a barbeque," Shadow nodded, his claws had black flames on them.
"It's not like I can't help either, Princess of the Night wings, remember?" Crescelia stood up, grinning. Everyone else stood up, grins on all their faces. I slowly stood up and smiled.

"That's all good, but, you might not get to reach the night wings in time," I whirled around, behind the couch was none other than Crescent, with some new friends.

"For those of you who didn't see my entrance previously, I'm Crescent, I figured you might want some help," Crescent's form changed and in front of us was a figure made of shadows, and pure glowing white eyes. He had shadows clothes like that of a pirate…almost.

"Names' Zeke, I'm a hybrid buddy," Zeke shook my hand, his current form was that of an black dragon with a blue tail flames and black eyes with blue pinpricks.
"Hey, I'm Destin," a metal night wing by the looks of it shook my hand as well.
"Yeah, I'm a metal dragon with purple eyes, eh, we're all different, aren't we?" He grinned and stood by the other three. I noticed he had tail blades extending in four directions, as well as alternate exterior wrist blades. Last but not least, was a grinning male in blue and black clothes, with fur instead of scales.
"I'm Rain, and since we're shedding some light here, yes, I come from a different planet, as with the other nimrods that somehow managed to skip that important little detail," Rian grinned and shrugged. I smiled and noticed he almost looked like a cat/dog hybrid with blue markings on his fur(he's an anthro shiny umbreon readers…please don't look up fanart of that, unless you have safe search on…).

"Well, today has been quite…eventful," I scratched the back of my head.
"It's about to get worse," Destin spoke up, he turned on the TV and turned up the volume.

"That can't be good…" Zeke mumbled, on the screen was a dragon with red markings all over his ice wing body. He started his "villain speech" but we turned down the volume and turned to each other.

"Shell, what's our readings on the satellites?" Deathbringer asked.

"Nothing," Shell replied, shocked. Hehe.

"Well that's good, right?" Rain asked, blinking several times.
"No, I mean, there's nothing up there, there's no satellites! They've been blown up from down here!" Shell exclaimed.
"And that's not good," Rain looked to Crescent.
"We don't need them," Crescent calmly replied.
"Why not?" Statica asked with suspicion.

"You don't need satellites to storm an army," Crescent grinned, high fiving Deathbringer.
"I like how you think," Deathbringer grinned. Peril was nodding.
"Don't we all," Destin sarcastically replied.
"Hey, you chose this path," Crescent threw his arms up.

"Yeah, buddy, you're stuck with us!" Rain grabbed Destin, giving him a noogie. While the noogie wasn't really effective, you could see Destin wasn't enjoying it. At least we got a few laughs out of it. All good things had to come to an end though, we had to make a quick plan, and take down what was left of Black Matter.

Hey readers, I decided to throw a bit of…personality in this chapter, specifically the brother/cousin like relationship between Rain and Destin. Just to be clear, the next chapter or two will be the end of book 1 or arc 1 to this story. I have a college arc planned, of course, Mirror would be in college with Mirror, but also Shadow. The others would be a little too young. I don't know if they'll make it into that arc often, but they will be in there occasionally. Other than that, I guess I'll see you readers another time, bye!