Chapter 10

The body count was four in total, and I commed a cleanup crew to take care of that and the one soldier who had suffered heavy injuries. The rest of us very quickly tended our wounds and moved on.

"With this many enemies," I told Fefnir, "there has to be some kind of base around here."

Fefnir nodded, looking thoughtful for a moment- an expression that did not quite fit his features. "I think I should send someone on a ahead to scout the general area. Wouldn't want a big group like this to stumble onto somethin' without knowin' what we're stumblin' on to."

I held my hands out in an exaggerated shrug. "That's completely your call. You're the leader this time. Would you like me to call over Flauclaws or Magnion?"

Fefnir shook his head slowly. "Naw... I have someone else in mind for the job." He turned and looked over his shoulder. "Hey you... Arcan."

Arcan looked up questioningly. "M-me sir?"

"Yeah, you. Come over here." Fefnir glanced at my incredulous face as Arcan trotted over. "Kid talks too much, but he's got his heart in this... and he's light on his feet."

I gave Fefnir an "If you say so" shrug as Arcan brought his mud-green-and-gray-armored self to our present position.

"Hey rookie, how'd ya like to do some scouting?" Fefnir asked him, clapping the confused-looking man on the shoulder.

"Scouting? Me?"

"Do I need to give ya a definition? Yes. You. Scouting. Now."

Arcan snapped a salute. "Yes sir!"

"You know what to look for," Fefnir nodded. "We'll still be moving, but not very fast until you return."

Arcan turned to go, turned back, saluted again with another, "Yes, sir!" and ran off, disappearing nimbly through the trees.

"He's a good kid," Fefnir commented. "He's got some potential, he just needs more training."

"He has diarrhea of the mouth," I muttered under my breath, low enough that I did not think that Fefnir would hear.

Fefnir did hear, and guffawed loudly. "Now, that just sounds nasty..."

I rolled my eyes. "Grow up. You keep calling him a kid, but you're the one who acts like one." I paused. "If I remember correctly, he's been around longer than we have. And he doesn't look like a kid any more than the rest of us."

Fefnir glared at me, his eyes mocking. "Well, you look like a kid to me."

"Very funny," I growled. I knew that I had a rather boyish features, but the fact that it was Fefnir pointing it out was just plain irritating.

"Anyway, he just acts like a kid, although he's got smarts where it counts," Fefnir continued.

"Unlike some people I know..."

"Why are you guys always bustin' my chops?" he complained. "What, d'ya think I'm too stupid to know you're havin' fun at my expense?"

"You make fun of Leviathan," I pointed out.

"That's revenge! She does it to me all the time!" Fefnir crossed his arms in a huff. "I don't get no respect."

I raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps if you learned to speak proper English, you would."

"Perhaps if you learned to speak proper English, you would," Fefnir mocked in a high voice, probably trying to impersonate my voice in his own deranged mind. I knew that I was not exactly a bass, but my voice was not that high. I glared.

"Who's acting childish now?"

Fefnir made a hmph sound in the back of his throat. "If you're done lecturing me on semantics, I did have something I wanted to say about Arcan."

I waited.

"I think, with some training, the kid could be pretty good. I wouldn't mind teachin' him." Fefnir paused and looked at me expectantly.

"No," I said simply, in a tone of voice that said this subject was not up for discussion.

Apparently, Fefnir missed that tone of voice, and continued anyway. "Why not?"

"Why not?" I said irritably. "How many reasons do you need? He's weak, irresponsible, fool-hearty, and, to top it off, he talks so much, he'd never hear a word you said in training anyway."

"Aw, he's not that bad. he may talk a lot, but he listens good, too. He's not too bad in a fight; with some modifications and strength enhancements, he could be pretty good."

"No means no, Fefnir," I snapped. "Drop it."

"No," Fefnir growled, beginning to get angry. "And he's not fool-hearty, he's just got balls. Why, he'll even spar against me. Everyone's usually afraid to spar me."

"So that's what this is all about," I smirked. "No one else will spar you, so you want to make the only person who will stronger."

Fefnir shook his head. "Look, I need another good soldier under me. You've got Burble Hekalot..."

"No prize there," I interrupted.

"Panter Flauclaws, Phoenix Magnion..."

"Actually, Magnion's under both of us. He was under Phantom, remember?"

"How could I forget?" Fefnir muttered. "He reminds us of how much of a 'better leader' Phantom was every day."

I blew my breath out my nose. He was right; Magnion was a good soldier, but he often ever-so-subtly reminded us of just how inferior to Phantom he thought we were. Just because we didn't give up our lives in battle, I thought. Because he was willing to throw everything away, when we realized that we needed to survive long enough to see this through. I could understand Phantom's sentiments a little; he had the code of honor of a ninja, therefore it was tradition that he would suicide after losing a major battle. But if we all did that, there'd be precious few of us left...

"Your mind's wandering again, isn't it?" Fefnir broke into my thoughts.

"Maybe..." I said evasively.

"What about this time?" He wondered.

I shrugged. "Phantom, I guess. Thinking about what has been; it's not important right now."

Fefnir shrugged. "Yeah, he was a good guy. Always so calm... except when he fought."

We walked in silence for a few moments, neither of us wishing to say anything negative about the deceased. Despite that, I knew what we were both thinking... and always breathing down our necks, watching for any sign of disloyalty...

Suddenly, Fefnir chuckled. "How did we get so far off the subject? Now, as I recall, we were discussing my need for another good commander..."

"What?" I interjected. "It's 'commander' now?" I shook my head. "This discussion was over before it started."

"Oh, come on," Fefnir grumbled. "You're even getting Aztec Falcon back. I don't see anyone moving to rebuild Anubis."

Sighing, I absently kicked at a branch by my feet. "That's because Anubis' memory chip was too damaged to rebuild him. Falcon's, we managed to salvage."

"Well, that's great n' all, but Arcan-"

"No!"

"Why?"

"I told you why."

Fefnir opened his mouth to retort, but the aforementioned individual chose that moment to emerge from the trees before us.

"Hi, guys!" he said cheerfully.

I grit my teeth. "Since when is that how you greet your superior officers?"

Had he been capable of blushing, he probably would have. "I- err- uh... I-I'm sorry, sir..."

"Stop hastlin' the kid," Fefnir admonished.

I ignored him and glared at Arcan. "What did you find?" I asked this, of course, without truly expecting a valid answer; at the level of incompetence that I felt I was working with, a show of any amount of intelligence would be nothing short of shocking.

"Hey," Fefnir protested. "You put me in charge of this, remember? I ask the questions." He turned back to Arcan. "So, what did you find?" I felt like repeatedly banging my head on a tree.

"Sir!" Arcan said, suddenly formal again. "There is an enemy outpost just west of here. It's lightly guarded; I believe that the demi-dragons were the main line of defense. If we approach from the right and circle behind, we should be able to take them by surprise, since there is a second entrance there with only one guard."

It was a display of intelligence; I was shocked.

"All right," Fefnir ordered, "get back with the other soldiers. We're gonna pick up the pace."

We all approached the position that Arcan had given us silently. Upon my quick inspection, I discovered that the structure was quickly put together, and definitely not meant to be permanent. It was a flimsy metal building, painted a dark army-green so as not to stand out. A small area of the forest floor had been dug away, and I estimated that, with the twelve feet or so that sat above ground, there was probably that much below ground as well. Arcan was quite correct about the compound being lightly guarded; in fact, I saw only four guards total in the frontal area, and they seemed to be nothing but ordinary reploids with guns.

We circled to the back, as per our original plans, undetected. As Arcan had stated, there was only one guard, although he seemed more alert, and perhaps a bit more capable than the others. Why does this seem so cliché... I motioned to Fefnir and the others to stay where they were. The red-eyed warrior scowled at this, but did as I ordered. I speedily but stealthily bolted to the side of the building, just out of the guard's range of eyesight. Moving quickly and silently along the wall, I allowed myself a discreet glance around the corner. Unfortunately, the reploid was out of sight in the doorway. Gotta take him out without letting him raise an alarm. I watched patiently until he reappeared again.

The dull-blue-armored soldier stepped into my line of sight, turned to his left, away from me, and started walking, muttering grumpily to himself. Drawing a single saber and activating it, I sprinted up behind him in a blur of speed and drew the red-violet blade over his throat so quickly and efficiently that he did not even have time to gurgle. Blood, of a rather orange hue, spurted from the wound as the body slipped to the ground. I ignored the corpse and motioned Fefnir and Leviathan over.

"I thought this mission was mine," Fefnir hissed venomously. "Why're you callin' all the shots?"

"Habit," I shrugged. "If you have an idea, now is the time to voice it."

Leviathan grabbed my arm and pulled me backwards, albeit gently. "Here's my idea," she said softly, just under Fefnir's level of hearing. "Let Fefnir prove himself. It's a guy thing, I guess." She grinned at me and winked. "Not that you would know anything about that..."

I scowled. Those two will joke at the most inappropriate times... I decided, however, that Leviathan was most likely right; Fefnir's pride would probably be wounded if I did not even allow him to attempt leading this mission before taking over myself. I suppose it would be a figurative kick in the balls to just yank command out from under him. I was so used to being in charge, I realized, that I tended to assume leadership even when I did not mean to. I made a conscious effort to back off, despite the fact that following Fefnir's orders was going to be difficult to grow used to.

Fefnir quickly assigned several groups of soldiers to posts in the forest around the compound. Each team of soldiers was ready to contact us by com with the push of a button in the case of anything being amiss. Leviathan also remained outside with Cerussite, a bit of added force to give the enemy a hard time until we could join them. I hoped that the precautions would be in vain.

Fefnir lead me, Flauclaws, Magnion, and a group of solders- including Arcan, much to my dismay- up to the structure itself, past the dead blue reploid. The red Guardian examined the locking mechanism on the door for a moment, puzzling over the best way to open it. He conferred with Magnion for a brief moment, and then gestured to me with a jerk of his chin to join them.

"Crack it or shoot it?" he asked when I approached. "Whad'ya think, Harpuia?"

I shrugged. "I can try to crack it, but no promises here."

Fefnir nodded and I examined the mechanism myself. It was a fairly simple lock- a key-pad with numbers from zero to nine with the intent of the user to put in a three- or four-digit code to open the door. The problem was, if I input the sequence incorrectly, I was afraid that an alarm may alert the enemy of our presence; in my experience, fiddling with security locks was a bad idea unless one knew exactly what one was doing. After some thought, I drew a saber.

"I thought you were going to crack it?" Fefnir questioned.

"Bad idea," I said back, activating the blade.

"What, so you're gonna kill the lock instead?" he asked incredulously. "That's just as likely to set off an alarm as inputting the wrong code."

"I know. I'm not destroying the lock; I'm destroying the door."

Fefnir looked at me blankly for a moment. "Oh." And then with a bit more understanding, "Ohhh."

I crammed my sword into the flimsy, thin metal and slowly pulled downward. As I had thought, the surface was weak and peeled away like scorched paper. I carved an entrance large enough to admit everyone in the group and then kicked the weakened part in. It fell through with a clatter and I peered through the opening. A dozen guards peered back, guns trained on my face. I jerked my head back.

"Crap."

With that exclamation, gunfire exploded through the opening, sending Fefnir's team scattering like a flock of birds. I flew back with the ranks and cursed my lack of a long-range weapon as I watched Fefnir decimate the already half-destroyed doorway with his fire-buster. I felt Magnion's presence behind me and glanced back, knowing that he, like me, was a bit more well-equipped for close-range combat.

He watched the battle passively for a moment before acknowledging my presence. "A rather brash move you just made, Master Harpuia." I could not read his face, since it was incapable of showing expression, but I could sense the admonishment there, just the same. "Perhaps Master Phantom would have had a better plan."

I clenched my teeth against a retort, knowing that it was not the time or the place to get bent out of shape over Magnion's loyalties. Still, he'd better accept me as leader sooner or later, or I may have to have him demoted for his insubordination.

The fire-fight continued to rage, although neither side was making much headway. We were, however, making mincemeat of the wall. I soared up, over the battle and spied the guards from the front locked in combat with Leviathan and Cerussite. Needless to say, they did not last long against an efficient team such as that.

I landed atop the structure, above the besieged room, and slashed a hole in the ceiling. Dropping through, I twisted my body into a spin and bisected any individual who was unfortunate enough to be close to my landing. Most of the soldiers were concentrated at the remains of the door with their backs to me, and I used my split-second of surprise to my advantage. As the back ranks turned to face their new threat, I sent a crescent of energy into the line, cutting two in half and severing one's arm. I launched myself into a low, dangerously fast flight and slashed open several more. Their numbers had grown, although not by enough to worry me, since the first wave had nearly all been destroyed already.

I yelped and shot upwards as a huge fireball, very obviously of Fefnir's doing, rushed through the doorway and turned the room into an inferno. Fortunately, I managed to fly myself through the rent in the ceiling I had made to get out of the explosion. Note to self: stay away from wherever Fefnir's firing. My armor normally held up fairly well against extreme heat, but I was never fond of inviting trouble. As the flames cleared, I dropped through the hole again and quickly dispatched anything that remained alive. Fefnir clambered through the door- not really a door any longer- and surveyed the mess with a sadistic smile.

"We make quite a team, don't we?" he grinned, holding up his gun.

I frowned in displeasure. "You nearly torched me, you idiot," I retorted.

"Oh, c'mon. You got out. Besides, I knew a little shot like that wouldn't hurt you too bad." He walked up to the door that adjoined the guardhouse to the rest of the building and unceremoniously kicked the thin metal in with one huge boot. The rest of our soldiers quickly followed us through and into the poorly lit hallway beyond. I decided that I did not like our present situation. If we were attacked, we would not have room to fight. I glanced to either side, at the doors that were unlabeled there. Fefnir gestured me to the door on our right, implying that I should "open" it with my saber, as I had the one outside. Instead, I gave him a meaningful glance, hit the button, and opened it the normal way.

Both doors were nothing but soldier's quarters, the first being deserted, the second having one lone occupant who cowered away from Fefnir's advancing form.

Fefnir grinned toothily. "Tell me everything you know, and I may let you live- for awhile."

Instead of being shaken, however, the reploid drew himself up to his full height- which was not very much in comparison to Fefnir, or even to me for that matter. He glared into Fefnir's dark-skinned visage. "I'd rather die," he hissed, and spat directly into the red general's face. Wiping the saliva away, Fefnir moved toward him with a growl.

"That can be arranged," he said dangerously. "The only question is, do you want it to be slow and painful, or really slow and really painful..."

My attention was taken from my friend's growing rage by a high-pitched... resonance, far above the hearing level of all humans, and most reploids. That's...

"Fefnir, get back!" I cried out, shoving him roughly from the room and slamming the door.

"Harpuia, what's-" He was cut off by a loud explosion, and the door blew outward and knocked him against the wall. He pushed the offending metal away, examining his shoulder armor. "Aw, man, now I need a new paint-job..."

I glared humorlessly.

He shrugged. "Well, I do. Anyway, I think we'd better move on... I don't think he's likely to talk," he said, gesturing to the demolished room.

I wanted to simply sigh, shake my head, and either take over the mission myself or leave and let Fefnir handle everything without my having to see it and wonder if it was a good decision or not. It was not, by any means, that he was doing a bad job, it was simply that the flippant attitude he held even in the most serious of situations sometimes made me want to punch him, quite frankly. Both Fefnir and Leviathan often seemed overly carefree, and it frustrated me to no end. I worked endlessly to fill my position, and at times I felt that they took that for granted, occasionally ignoring my orders or poking fun at my seeming "lack of personality." It's hard to have a personality when all you were made to be is a warrior... Somewhere in the back of my mind, I believed, perhaps, that by putting Fefnir in charge of this mission and leaving all of the important decisions to him, he would be more inclined to understand the burden that I perpetually carried. Not that he was foreign to commanding an army, but for the most part, he was usually in charge of the fighting, and that was that as far as he was concerned.

I realized that I had let my mind wander and mentally chastised myself for doing so- and in the middle of a mission, at that. We had reached the other end of the hall, which was not very long, and were met by two more doors. Fefnir moved to open the one on the left, but it was locked. I thought I heard him growl to himself, and then he punched straight through the flimsy alloy and destroyed the locking mechanism within, causing the door to slide open part-way. It was now too badly damaged to move far on its track. This structure is definitely not built to last, I mused. Looking past Fefnir and into the darkened room, I discovered that what we had just broken into was a large weapons locker. I was initially tempted to have the men raid it for useful supplies but upon further inspection, I decided that the arms within the closet were far outclassed by anything possessed by Neo-Arcadia.

The door on the opposite side revealed a stairwell to the basement level, and the group followed Fefnir down. Where is everybody? I wondered. It couldn't be that we've retired everyone here... could it? If that were the case, this entire operation on our enemy's part was extremely poorly executed. Something just doesn't make sense to me. We've got soldiers, demi-dragons, and a semi-portable base... and still no resources. No possibilities as to where it could have come from. I can only hope that we find something more useful in Pinnacle Canyon.

Two doors stood at the bottom of the stairs, yet again on either side of us. For once, one was actually labeled, and simply read "Med." Fefnir hit the button to open the door and looked inside. One wounded reploid and two medical staff were occupying the room, all with weapons ready. Expecting us. No surprise; we haven't exactly been subtle.

"Put the weapons down, and you can just be taken as prisoners of war," Fefnir offered, knowing as well as I that if we retired everyone, then no one would be left to question.

In answer to Fefnir's request, one of the medical staff fired his gun, nailing Fefnir in the forehead, which was, fortunately, protected by his helmet. The red warrior frowned. "That gave me a headache. Now, let's see what happens when I do that to you..." He hoisted his buster up to point at the offending reploid. The man, like an idiot, continued to fire, but it did little or nothing to Fefnir's armor. Fefnir fired two uncharged blasts, one at each medic. It was more than enough to take them down. He then gestured to the wounded man, who was still holding a weapon, but seemed to have realized the futility of firing it.

"Harpuia, I think you may be better with negotiating skills..."

I shook my head, hearing the same familiar resonance. "Uh... we'd better go," I said, shooing Fefnir and the others out of the clinic door, and closing it soundly behind myself. I had just stepped away from the entrance when a resounding boom shook the hall, and the door, being farther away from the explosion than the other one, buckled outward, quite incapable of ever sliding open again.

"Y'know, I really don't think that any of these guys are going to talk," Fefnir stated bluntly.

I glanced at the door. "Obviously."

We took the other door, ending up in another hallway, though wider and shorter than the one upstairs. Fefnir kicked in the next door that we saw, and I was met by the sight of a dozen computers lined neatly against the walls, along with large, wall-mounted monitors and a holograph-emitting battle display chart that dominated the center of the room. Everything was powered down; the monitors black, the view-screens dead and blank. Fefnir knelt and attempted to turn one on, but nothing happened. I tried another, but to no avail.

"They're pretty intent on keeping us out of their business," I grumbled in frustration. "They've completely cut the power to this room; and they managed to dispose of anything that could possibly contain any useful information." I began chewing my lower lip. This suddenly was not going so well. No information, no clues... and nearly all of the soldiers had apparently been killed in the little skirmish that we had created outside. Could they really have been running this facility, small though it may be, with so few men? There were more demi-dragons.

Fefnir angrily slammed his fist through a computer monitor. "This is crap," he fumed. "Th' soldiers self-destruct, the computers are shut down- and probably wiped clean, the only thing we've done since we got here is fight."

I raised an eyebrow and looked at Fefnir questioningly. "Since when is that a complaint for you?"

Fefnir pulled his fist out of the computer, knocking the entire apparatus on the floor in the process. "It's not," he admitted. "Usually. But our intent in coming here wasn't just t' kill stuff... as fun as that may be."

I sighed, feeling his frustration. "All we can do is take a couple of hard drives back to base and see if there's anything on them. One way or another, we need to find out where this is all coming from.

Fefnir grunted an acknowledgment and motioned over two soldiers. "You two... you heard him. Grab a couple of hard drives and transfer back to base." He hesitated for a moment. "Obviously, not from the computer I just destroyed..."

The men complied with his orders, and I followed him back out into the hall.

He shook his head. "It hardly seems worth it to explore the rest of this place... if there was nothin' in the war room, it's pretty likely that there's nothin' anywhere else."

I shrugged. "Your call."

"We'd better make sure we've cleared the place out first," he decided. There were only two more doors to explore, and one was nothing more than an empty energy-refilling station. Many reploids could simply eat to refill their power, but such comforts seemed to be bypassed here. I myself rarely ate; I often recharged at the same time that I caught my brief hours of sleep, neglecting my own bed more often than not.

The first door may have lead to nothing, but the second- that was another story entirely. Another security lock blocked our way, and when Fefnir attempted to put his fist through the door, he only left a shallow dent.

"Reinforced metal," he muttered thoughtfully, bringing his fire-buster to bare on the offending door. "This calls for some heavy-duty firepower."

"Hold on, Fefnir," I cautioned. "You wouldn't want to damage whatever's beyond, if there's anything important. I think that I can find a better way around this..." I looked at him meaningfully. "With your permission."

I imagined that I could practically see Fefnir's head swelling in size after hearing his superior ask his permission to do something. Maybe that wasn't a great idea on my part... it means putting up with his ego for awhile. Fefnir only grinned, much to my dismay.

"Well, I suppose, if you think you have any bright ideas..." he smirked casually. Okay, definitely not doing that again.

I looked closely at the key-pad, wondering for a moment how I would figure out the sequence. Then something caught my attention. Although most individuals would not spot something so minute, I noticed that the one, the two, and the five all had extremely small signs of wear on them. Whatever the sequence is, it has to be involving those three... I stared hard for awhile and decided that the one was a bit more rubbed off than the two and the five, leading me to believe that it was a four-digit sequence using the one twice. Order is the problem...

"Hey, you gonna do somethin' or jes' stand there?" Fefnir grumbled impatiently.

"Shut up," I snapped without thinking. "I'm working on it." I turned back to the lock and raised my hand as though to press the buttons, but did not do so just yet. Concentrate, I told myself. There's got to be a way to figure this out... My thoughts were broken by a tiny, tinkling voice from just beyond the door. Is that my imagination? I could not hear any words, and I was not sure if perhaps it was fatigue finally toying with my mental pathways. Maybe I'm just going crazy...

"What's the matter now?" Fefnir questioned irritably, taking a step forward. "Really, why won't you just let me blow it up, if ya can't figure it out 'n all..."

"Do you hear something?" I interrupted.

"No," Fefnir replied curtly. "C'mon, man, just open the bloody door..."

"I hear something!" Arcan chimed in, coming forward and pressing an ear against the door. "It sounds like a voice."

Great. Just the person I wanted help from. "All right, back off. If this is wrong, I don't know what will happen." I set my jaw and tapped in one-two-five-one, and... the door hissed open. I let out a breath that I had not realized I had been holding.

"You did it!" I was greeted by a small, bell-like voice. What? I ignored it for now and looked up to find another door and security lock, this one with a palm-scanner. Well, that's not gonna work.

"Fefnir," I sighed in resignation, "it's all yours."

He grinned happily and promptly blew down the door with a shot from his buster. Before I could get a glimpse of the room beyond, he charged in, the rest of the men brushing hurriedly by me to follow. Way to throw caution to the wind, Fefnir. Announce your entrance to the world, and then run on ahead to meet whatever awaits. I began to follow, mentally criticizing Fefnir's judgment call all the while. I was just stepping through the door when I heard the voice again.

"Hey, you're not just gonna leave me... are you?" It was high and feminine... a bit too high for my liking, I decided- it was almost mousy in quality- and it had no apparent source. I gave my surroundings a quick perusal, but saw nothing.

"Come on, you can't be that blind! Down here!" I looked down and saw a small storage crate; the kind used for energy, most of the time.

"Yeah, that's right... in the box! Now c'mon... let me out! I don't want to die helping these idiots."

I released the latch and a tiny glowing figure flew out. A cyber-elf. "Um..." I began.

"Feyliya at your service!" she cried joyously, executing a cocky salute. She was tiny; perhaps two inches tall, at the most, and humanoid. Very humanoid, I noticed. She appeared to be a red-headed sprite, naked and winged; something straight from a fairy-tale. The glowing aura around her shimmered alternating shades of electric violet and neon orange. She must be a rare elf; she looks nothing like most of the other cyber-elves I've seen.

"Are you just gonna stand there and stare?" she scolded, flitting energetically about my head and making it very difficult for me to look at her. "Anyway, call me Li; I'm your new best friend!"

"Indeed," I muttered disinterestedly, and continued into the next room. I was just in time for the alarmed yells of the soldiers and Fefnir's shouting frantic commands. Two demi-dragons were emerging from the shadows, and a third, larger one was standing before Fefnir, apparently attempting to find out who could stare down the other first.

The two smaller ones concerned me very little; we would make short work of them. It was the larger one that worried me. He was about the same size as the ones Mayu and I had fought, but he looked... different somehow. His body was, perhaps, less demonic and more draconian, a bit lither, with a longer neck. The armor was more heavily reinforced, and jagged, even down the chest-plate, and in the eyes, something sparked that I had not seen in any of the others I had fought; true intelligence. This one was a true reploid, not just another weapon. This... is not going to be fun. He looks as though he could take on an army by himself, and we only brought a scouting force. I grabbed my com and radioed Leviathan.

"Leviathan, do you read? I asked quickly.

"Yeah.. we're all good out here. Cerussite and I cleaned up the soldiers in the front."

"Well, get to the back of the building and come in through the 'entrance' we made."

"...Why not the front door?"

"Whatever!" I snapped. "Just get in here, however you manage it! We're on the basement floor."

"Yeesh, fine. Don't get yer nose outta joint; I'm on my way," she said irritably and cut the transmission.

Both smaller dragons dove at the group of soldiers, and in the blink of an eye, Fefnir and the larger one were locked in intense combat. I ran to his aid, flying upward when I reached the monstrosity and slicing his chest and face with both sabers. I kicked off of his head and flipped backwards, distancing myself from my foe before he could react to my sudden attack. Fefnir fired several blasts at him, but they appeared to do nothing on the heavy armor. He phased in his other gun and pummeled him with shots.

"That was cool!" Li chirped, flying past my face in a flash of orange and purple. "Do something else!"

I scowled. What a nuisance. Of all the worst times to pick up a cheerleader. I began to fly back to my adversary, but at that moment, he raised his arms and sent out a shock-wave of energy that bowled Fefnir and I over, and sent Li across the room to smack against the far wall. She fluttered disorientedly back to me and landed on my shoulder, shaking her head dizzily. The demi-dragon activated a set of flaming orange wings that connected to his arms, and flapped once, raising himself into the air. He glared, and then, to my surprise, turned and laughed at Fefnir.

"I had heard that your strength was great, Fighting Fefnir." His voice was a powerful baritone and seemed to fill the room every bit as much as his impressive physical bulk did. His eyes shown green, and the tattoos on his body glistened a brilliant cerulean. "I am disappointed," he continued. "Ah, and Sage Harpuia... So-called master of the skies. We will see who rules both land and air! I am General Baphomet..."

"Cut the monologue," Fefnir spat. "You gonna kill me; bring it!"

Baphomet roared and dove at Fefnir. The crimson general rolled to the side and blasted the monster in the head with a charged shot. It did nothing. I used the opportunity to streak in at is back and attempted to cut through its right arm, but the energy of my blades did not so much as scratch the armor. This may call for some... improvisation. Leviathan, I hope you get down here soon.

I instead took out my frustrations on one of the lesser dragons. The two of them were attacking quickly into the group, and then retreating to avoid Flauclaws' and Magnion's counter attacks, although they did not seem too terribly worried about the other soldiers, who could do nothing but fire their guns in an endless, cacophonous rhythm. One dragon swooped in and grabbed an unfortunate soldier and, sinking dagger-like teeth into his neck, ripped his head off and spat it out on the floor, dropping the body. Bits of reploid gore colored his teeth and ran down his jaw as he roared.

I yelled in answer to its cry and bolted after it, sabers flying. To my surprise, it agilely dodged my attack, retreating and hissing at me. Added speed. This could almost be fun if not for General Baphomet. I flew at it again, and again it dodged easily. It stood at its full height on the floor and chortled at me mockingly. Its mirth faded, however, when Arcan, who had managed to get behind it surprisingly fast, opened fire on it with armor-piercing rounds. Several bullets ripped into its back and out through its chest. Its sickly laughter turned to a scream of rage and pain, and it whirled to face Arcan.

"Dodge this," the small reploid said in a low voice, and then stabbed his beam-dagger through its eye. The demi-dragon jerked away, the energy blade still imbedded up to the hilt. I saw my opening and split its head down the center. Pulling Arcan's dagger from the dead socket, I tossed it to him. Well, Fefnir was right about one thing; he's got balls.

I turned to incapacitate the other demi-dragon, but Flauclaws was one step ahead of me. The reckless fighter jumped on the dragon, taking a deep stab wound from the claws, and ripped his own set of claws through the creature's torso. Wounded beyond functionality, it fell to the floor, destroying various pieces of nearby machinery and creating a crater. The soldiers fell upon it to be sure that it would never rise.

Fefnir and Baphomet were locked in combat, Fefnir having given up his gun in favor of melee fighting. Surprisingly, the pummeling that he was giving it with his fists appeared to be more effective than his buster had been. The armor seemed to simply resist energy; at least, to the extent that harming it with a beam saber or a gun that shot energy would take a very long time. Well, if that's the case... I deactivated my sabers and flew into Baphomet with a full-force kick. He reeled backwards, into a right hook from Fefnir. I followed up with a solid punch of my own to the neck and then brought my elbow up hard into his chin. He managed to retaliate with a slash of his claws, but I dodged backwards and the attack missed. He, however, lunged after me and sank his teeth deeply into my shoulder. I could feel hot blood pulsing from the wound, but I dared not wrench away, or he could have taken my entire arm off. I consciously forced myself not to yell in pain.

Fefnir, on the other hand, did yell, but in rage, and head-butted Baphomet in the stomach. The sharp horns on the vermilion warrior's helmet pierced through the armor, and the demi-dragon let go of my shoulder to roar and retaliate against Fefnir. I dropped to the ground, holding my right hand over the bloody mess of my left arm. Great; this is going to limit my fighting.

"You'll pay for that, foolish Guardian!" Baphomet was screaming at Fefnir.

Fefnir scowled darkly. "Famous last words; I'd like to see you try." The dragon snarled angrily and moved as though to bite Fefnir's face, but the Guardian kicked his legs out from under him, purposely falling on his back, and kicked upward, striking the dragon's throat and lower jaw. I leapt and hook-kicked our adversary in the back of the head. He stumbled forward, dazed but unharmed.

Our attacks are obviously phasing him, but I can only do so much with hands and feet, and its not enough to do real damage on armor like that. I looked around for Flauclaws, figuring that he may be able to deal some heavy damage with his steel claws, but he had been badly wounded enough that he was effectively out of the fight for the time being. Why does his fighting style have to be so reckless?

Magnion swept after Baphomet, coming to Fefnir's aid, but his style of attacking could not seem to hurt him. With a great sweep of his flaming orange wings, Baphomet knocked Magnion away. I sprinted in a threw a punch with my good arm, leaving a sizable dent in the chest-plate. Now there's a punch that Fefnir would be proud of. The soldiers were firing intermittently at the beast, but the busters did nothing, and the volleys were infrequent for fear of hitting me or Fefnir. Only Arcan's armor piercing rounds seemed to have any effect, but the damage was minimal; Baphomet was not proving easy to take down.

I slammed my knee into his stomach and flew upwards, kicking his snout as I rose. He snapped at me, but fortunately was not able to sink his teeth in this time.

Baphomet fired two blasts of orange plasma at me, too quickly for me to move. I braced myself for a hit... A little, flickering violet light placed itself between me and the shots, and the energy splashed harmlessly over the small shield. Li flew back to my shoulder and sat down.

"We're one for one now. If you want me to do that again... pay me or something." She crossed her arms, looking self-satisfied.

Powerful little thing. If that's what she can do without sacrificing herself, I wonder what her true function is?

Baphomet grabbed Fefnir in his talons, gouging them in painfully, and threw the red Guardian against the wall, which buckled outward from the force of the impact. At that moment, Leviathan came running through the door with Cerussite following closely behind her. Seeing the present situation- which amounted to me standing nearby, holding my profusely bleeding shoulder, and Fefnir slowly standing up after his up-close-and-personal encounter with the wall- she drew her harpoon and stood in a battle stance. Cerussite positioned himself a strategic distance away from her, and likewise readied himself for a fight.

Her harpoon and Cerussite's claws should be of greater help in this battle than what we've been doing. Leviathan sprinted at the demi-dragon, veering off at the last second to deliver a glancing blow with her weapon. It gouged shallowly into the chest plate, but the enraged Baphomet did not let that distract him. Instead, he turned to meet Cerussite's charge. The frost-blue-and-white combatant moved as though to slash the monster, but subtly changed his course and ducked beneath him, coming up on his right flank and stabbing straight on with his claws. Cerussite was an interesting fighter to see in action; his movements were lucid, casual, almost lazy, but they held an unmistakable grace. He seemed to move in slow motion, and yet, as the eye trained on him, it would suddenly find itself unable to follow, so great was his speed. Thus far, I had found no one- save for myself- who possessed speed greater than his. Baphomet recognized this new danger and took to the air, staying out of Cerussite's range.

Fefnir fired a fully charge blast form his cannon, attempting to rock the demon from the air. The roiling ball of flame struck the dark dragon between the shoulder blades, and his flight dropped just enough for Leviathan to leap up and slash his stomach with her spear. Baphomet dove at her, knocking her to the ground. One orange claw caught her left cheek below the eye and sliced down all the way to her shoulder. I launched myself at him, despite my painful injury, and shoulder-rammed him in the left side. He moved just enough to free Leviathan, and Fefnir forearmed him in the throat. Baphomet clamped down on Fefnir's arm with his powerful jaws, but since Fefnir's forearms had extra armor plating, it did not do the extent of damage that it had to my shoulder.

Cerussite moved in and slashed the dragon along the left side of the face, causing him to let go of Fefnir's arm. Baphomet recoiled, jerking his head back like a snake's, and shot several blasts at Cerussite. The first knocked Leviathan's apprentice backwards, singeing him. He avoided the second and third easily, but was not expecting the fourth that met his trajectory and knocked him off his feet. Leviathan, who had gotten off the floor some time ago, raised her harpoon in challenge and ran forward, swinging viciously at the monster.

Baphomet avoided her attack, but I was there to follow it up with an aerial drill-kick, knocking him back into Leviathan's attack range. He attempted to turn and slash at me, but Fefnir grabbed his tail and pulled with all his might, not letting go although he received a few nasty gashes on his arms, helmet, chest, and stomach from the frantically flailing wings. Fefnir braced himself, feet planted wide, to keep from being lifted off the ground. Leviathan slashed upwards, leaving a deep gouge from stomach to chin, and the dragon roared and launched himself into the air, only to be pulled back down by Fefnir's massive strength. Baphomet twisted in the scarlet general's grip and gave him a solid uppercut to the chin. Fefnir was knocked upward and back, landing on his back on the floor. The demon then took to the air, but suddenly shrieked in rage when he realized that Leviathan was perched on his back, ready to drive her spear in through his shoulder-blades. He angrily threw her off, although she managed to get in a solid hit to his right flank as she fell, and she landed atop Fefnir, who was already rising from the floor. He caught her and set her on her feet as he got up and then launched himself into the air, grabbing Baphomet by the leg, and scaled the dragon's back, pummeling his face with blows once he was close enough. I leapt to help, landing a solid knee into the monster's gut with enough force that he hit the ceiling. I landed again, trying to regain my bearings. The pain in my shoulder was beginning to make me dizzy.

Baphomet regained his flight balance and barrel-rolled, flinging Fefnir to the floor, and then swooped after him, talons extended to cleave his face. Leviathan gave an enraged yell and, displaying a throwing arm that I never knew she had, hurled her harpoon javelin-like into the dragon's chest. So great was the force of the blow that it penetrated through completely, impaling his heart- or whatever equivalent of one that he had- and sprouted from his back. His momentum reversed, and he crashed against the wall, the spear sticking in and pinning him there in reminiscence of a displayed insect. He glared at us, Leviathan in particular, with hateful eyes.

He threw his head back and laughed at us, the action punctuated by liquid gurgles and gouts of ebony blood as it oozed between his ivory fangs. "Enjoy your victory while it lasts, fools," he said defiantly, flecks of blood-laden spittle flying from his mouth. And then he died. As easy as that, he simply hung his head as the vengeful fire faded from his eyes, the tattoos darkened, the energy to his wings and claws cut off. There, pinned to the wall by Leviathan's spear, he seemed no more than a great, black, threatening statue. We all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Fefnir had apparently forgotten that he was still sitting on the floor- at least until Leviathan, grinning coyly, stepped in front of him and offered him a hand up. He blatantly ignored the gesture and gave her a withering glare instead.

"Now, let's not be a poor loser, Fefnir," She said as though speaking to a child.

Fefnir picked himself up from the floor, attempting to keep his ego in tact- which I doubted would last for much longer. "Y'know what?" He grumbled, a dour expression on his face.

"Hm?" she smiled pleasantly.

"Just- just shut up!" He turned his back and crossed his arms.

"Now, it's no reason to be mad just because you got shown up by a girl," Leviathan sighed, pretending to be serious. "Sure, I just saved your sorry behind and you totally embarrassed yourself in front of everyone and- eyaa!"

Fefnir picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, looking at me plaintively. "Can I lock her up when we get back? Please? Just for a day or two..."

My first response was to approach the situation with the same humorlessness in which I normally dealt with their bickering, but in this case it seemed that Leviathan was entitled to her revenge, and maybe- just maybe- I would help it along a bit, if only for my own amusement.

"You had better watch out, Fefnir," I cautioned. "I'm not so sure that she couldn't take you out. You seem to be getting pretty rusty with your combat..."

Fefnir growled, setting Leviathan none-too-gently on the floor. "You turned on me! Traitor!"

I was suddenly aware that the soldiers were watching us curiously, not used to seeing their leaders poke fun at each other this way. I cleared my throat, glancing at Fefnir and Leviathan, and then discreetly at the gawking soldiers. The two Guardians got the idea, and Leviathan wiped the silly grin off her face, while Fefnir lightened his scowl- albeit, not very much.

"All right, "Fefnir barked, acting the part of general, although I doubt he felt much like one at the moment. "Get General Baphomet off the wall; he may make a good trophy up there, but we should have our lab technicians examine him since there's little else to get info from here."

Several soldiers held Baphomet's corpse to keep it from falling while Arcan wrenched the harpoon free of wall and body and tossed it back to Leviathan. Once the lifeless demi-dragon was down, the three holding him activated their transervers to ship him back to base.

Fefnir's com unit began to chirp, and he snatched it up expectantly, answering, "Yeah, Fefnir here."

I could just make out the voice on the other end from where I was standing, telling him that the computer hard drives he had sent back awhile ago were completely wiped clean. He looked so peeved that, for a moment, I was worried that he may crush the com in his hand. Finally, he growled a simple, "Fine," and shut the device off without so much as an "over and out."

"All you guys... trans back to base," he ordered brusquely. In ones and twos at a time, the troops complied; even Leviathan teleported quickly without a fuss. Within moments it was only I and my vermilion armored companion.

"What're you waiting for?" he grunted, uncharacteristically sullen. "Don't wanna take orders from me anymore, huh?"

"I just want to know what you're up to," I sighed. "I figured since you waited until everyone else was gone to trans that must be you were planning something."

Fefnir smirked, now seeming more like himself. He produced a couple of high-powered explosives, and I stared at him incredulously.

"Dare I ask where those came from?"

His grin widened. "The weapons locker upstairs." His expression soured a bit. "As far as I'm concerned, this whole place is a useless waste of space. I wanna blow it up."

I caught a flash of orange light from the corner of my eye, and Li settled herself on my head. "Explosions are always good..." she chirped. Great. A mini, female Fefnir.

"What is that?" Fefnir wondered, a quizzical expression on his face.

"It's a long story," I sighed, although the story probably was not really that long. "So anyway... you're going to blow it up."

"Yep," he stated simply, beginning to work on setting the explosives. After a long pause, he muttered, "I just wish I could be here to see the fireworks."

I allowed myself a small smile. "You wanna see the fireworks, huh?"

Red-orange fire bloomed like a vicious flower in the forest, shooting sparks and shrapnel high above the treetops. Gouts of flame licked at their surroundings hungrily before falling below my line of sight. I did not have to look down to know that Fefnir, whom I was holding up by one arm, was grinning like an idiot. I was too. High above the forest, we watched our handiwork dye the darkening sky the color of blood as Li hovered happily at my side.