It felt like the heat from the Dragon's breath was going to scorch her eyebrows off. When the creature had burst into the thankfully deserted parking lot, Alakshmi was nearly smooshed.

What should have been a quiet walk back to her home (a nice room she rented in the suburbs) just had to be ruined. And of course it's a fucking Torchwake Dragon.

"What a wonderful way to end today." She hissed to herself, gauntlet flicking to life just in time to shield herself from another blast. If I can just summon SOMETHING please!

The Gods smiled on her for a moment, as the Creature was distracted by some racket coming from a nearby dumpster. Alakshmi hopped on the chance. One rushed Fire kata later and her Attack Raptor was ready to fight.

"Send this beast back where it came from" she ordered.

The Raptor quickly flew over the dragon, the turrets on his wings revving to life. Wings folded he dived, guns blazing. The pavement was riddled with deep holes, twin paths of destruction headed straight for the much larger creature.

Torchwake sidestepped just in time to avoid getting hit, sending another of his own blasts after the speedy Raptor.

Alakshmi raised her hand, commanding her creature to prepare for another run, but Torchwake Dragon had his own plan. As Attack Raptor made his pass, this time the Dragon grabbed his wing, and swung the helpless creature at Alakshmi.

She dived gracelessly under her creature, fully aware that her shield would do nothing to keep the useless sack of scales from hitting her. I should have known better than to attempt this fight with such a weak creature. She thought, as the Raptor vanished into embers.

Now the Dragon's attention was all on her.

Razorkinder! No. He's not good against such large creatures. Same with my scorpions. Her Mind was racing But… I do know one powerhouse. Alakshmi rolled to avoid Torchwake's clawed hand. The moment she got her feet back under her she was summoning again. "Tatsurian the Unchained!" She cried out, praying that the halfbreed would answer her.

Tatsurian leaped through, and Alakshmi was so relieved that the scratched up armor he wore reminded her of precious gold as he passed overhead, placing himself between her and the other dragon.

"Let's get this over with" Tat- Bob growled, glancing over his shoulder at her "Ray is supposed to summon me for training tonight."

"No one's told you yet?" Alakshmi asked, I assumed one of the other two would have looped him in to the situation by now "Nevermind that now. Move!" She lifted up a shield to block the worst of the fire, and Bob had jumped aside, chains lashing out to forcefully shut Torchwake's mouth.

Torchwake took the chain straight between his eyes with a defening roar. He blindly spun around, his thick heavy tail ripping against the ground. Bob easily vaulted over, and Alakshmi was far enough away that only the tip could hit her. She again went to shield herself only to find her mana nearly drained. Too close Alakshmi raised her other hand to defend herself. Bang! The tail slammed hard into her arms, sending her flying across the parking lot.

Torchwake had gotten his name partially from his lava hot skin.

Her forearms were screaming at her, "Fuck" she hissed, she went to pull her half melted hoodie away from her skin, only to be punished with more pain. She looked up at Tatsurian, who was looking back at her with concern when he could, but they both knew that the only way the halfbreed could help now was to get rid of the blazing hot beast.

Alakshmi watched as Tatsurian danced around the larger creature, and as her vision hazed she could almost see Ray on his back, see them duel not as master and weapon but as one being. Each looking out for each other.

The clash of metal and the roar of Tatsurian's rockets grew damp. The world was fading away.

(Break)

Tatsurian didn't like it one bit when Alakshmi didn't get up after that last hit. He had to finish this quickly if she was going to have any chance.

This damn bastard is going down he thought, sending a volly of rockets at the full blooded Dragon. No one hurts my friends and gets away with it.

Bob kept dancing around Torchwake, looking for weak spots. "Ray has a better eye for this than I do" he grumbled, taking aim at a cluster of already damaged scales.

Torchwake stumbled, collapsing to his side. Tatsurian wrapped his chain around the Dragon's throat and pulled until only embers remained.

Danger passed, he turned back to the white haired duelist. Just in time to see her slump over, and he too vanished back into the Creature Realm.

(Location and pov jump)

Bree streached her arms high over her head, releasing some of the tension from her long day.

From moving my best friend out to a 10 hour clinic shift. At least work was slow enough for me to work on the little angel's file a bit.

She turned to make the short walk back to the brownstone when a loud explosion whent off somewhere behind her.

Bree ran back into the clinic to throw together a trauma kit on one of the streachers before racing back out. A series of flashes and bangs rose above the buildings a couple blocks down, looks like it's coming from the abandoned strip mall. Hopefully that means minimal casualties.

She ignored her boss's yell to leave it to the professionals, Cuz I am a Professional but she still hoped he would call 911.

Now only a building away from trouble she Heard a gurgling hiss, and a scorching release of something, then something that sounded like a cut off "No!"

But by the time she turned the corner, all that was left was ruined pavement, and a single person. Female, Indian, late adolescence, maybe 18. Heavy burns on her arms.

Bree rushed to her side, "Mam, can you hear me? My name is Breanna and I'm here to help." She went to take her new patient's pulse from the wrist, noticing both that the girl's clothes were burnt to her skin and a wierd fingerless glove. It would be safer to take it from her neck. Bree didn't even need to count before realizing it was far too fast. Pair that with shallow, quick breaths and a lack of reaction… shock! The poor girl was in shock from her burns, if not from whatever blast had gone off.

She needed to act now.

Conventional help was going to be too late, even if she could get her to the clinic right now.

Bree closed her eyes, and placed the green gem on her bracelet against her palm. "I really hope you can keep a secret Hun," Bree took a deep breath, "Please let this work."

(Break)

Alakshmi woke up in an ambulance, head swimming. Two people were talking. Closer to her head was a paramedic, a tall man who couldn't decide between panic and wonder when he looked at her or the woman sitting beside him. She's beautiful.

"Thank goodness you're awake." Said the woman, who had been pushing her purple-black hair back into place. "I'm Bree, I found you burnt to hell by the old strip mall… Do you remember what happened? Or your name?" She asked, leaning forward enough for the bloodstains on her scrubs to be noticable.

A nurse? Alakshmi went to brush her hair from her face only to find she couldn't move.

"Hey hey hey" the paramedic soothed, "Your ok, but we needed to immobilize your arms. They are pretty burned up…"

"Alakshmi, my name is Alakshmi Verma."

"Alakshmi. Ok then, Do you know what hurt you?

Fuck. Normally we would just cybervirus everything away. What do I tell them?

Bree seemed to notice her panic. "It's ok if you don't know. Wierd stuff happens all the time in this town, doesn't it?" She asked, offering me an easy out. Why?

"Yea," Alakshmi answered before she even though about it. "Would you believe me if I told you a dragon did this?" She laughed, but it came out more like a croak.

Bree smiled in that way that makes the world seem good for a moment, Oh my gods "You would be surprised Hun"

The paramedic looked at her like she was crazy, but then shrugged. "I was going to question you, but then I remembered some of the crazy shit I've seen. God I gotta get out of this town."

Bree openly laughed in this musical way, and Alakshmi couldn't take her eyes off of her. "I hope she's single" She thought aloud, completely forgetting that they could hear her.

The beautiful nurse flushed, covering part of her face with her hand, rich dark skin almost dark enough to hide the flecks of blood… and those eyes, a mystical swirl of brown and purple, like finding lavender amongst the trees of some fairytale forest.

"I am. Plus I'm queer."

"And we're here!" The Paramedic added, "sorry I'm a sucker for rhymes, Excuse me" as the ambulance stopped.

The doors swung open, a team of nurses were all ready waiting to take her into the er, get her number a voice in the back of her mind cried out too late. Alakshmi had already been whisked inside while Bree filled out something on a clipboard. My gauntlet! She has my gauntlet! She noticed, hanging half out of her scrubs.

(Break)

Bree wanted to linger as long as she could, at least until someone came for her snow haired patient. But it was already so late and she still had to return the supplies she borrowed… The least I can do is manage her things, maybe see if I can call someone for her. I'll just make Jason or Helmut take care of the stuff. And I need a ride.

The medic filled in the personal affects form carefully. Partially to delay leaving, but also to make sure nothing got lost. Not even the wierd glove that seemed to have prevented her hand from getting burnt. I've never seen this material before… and it's so mana rich it hurts to touch she thought, throwing the glove-thing into the sachel the girl had been carrying, her business card tucked safety inside, hoping that she would remember enough about the ambulance ride to connect everything. Or she might just call for tailoring and never recognize me. Should've written 'hey I'm that nurse you asked out while delerious from shock!' she quietly laughed to herself.

Nyra's going to tease me about this for weeks when she hears, Dragons. Who would believe Dragons.

And with an exhausted yawn, she texted Helmut, never noticing the group of oddly dressed adults asking about Alakshmi, and turned in the paperwork and personal affects bag.

Her snow haired patient will be just fine. She made certain of that.