(chapter 23)

Dragon's Homeworld, Leviathan Beach

The last time Clemene had stood on this cliff, he and his paladins were fleeing in terror. This time he was here for a different reason. From this vantage point, he and Queen Ursula could see the ...flight deck?... of the offworlders' city-ship. It was always patrolled, day or night by at least 6 of those transforming flying machines. The deck itself had a mix of both the dragon- and knight-versions of these, also on guard duty.

On its own platform, towards the aft of the vessel, between the arcane structures they can't yet understand, sat the black shape of Lady Thunderwing. She was one of the city-ship's three rulers, an arcane fusion of demon and machine. Instead of using flames and wings, like the other machines, she spun twin clusters of sword-blades. The distinctive thundering noise of her approach was enough to panic horses, and scatter peasants.

The sea, surrounding the city-ship also had its own mechanical denizens, servants of Lady Enterprise, who the city-ship was named for. Where Thunderwing's minions were dragons and knights, Enterprise's were Sirens, and Mermaids.

However, they were here to talk with Lord Sturmdrachen, and Crown Princess O'Reilly.

One of the Siren-ships was already heading towards the shore to meet them, so they climbed down towards the beach.

===/===

Japan, possibly the outskirts of Tokyo

Mizuchi was getting tired. Her magic barrier was starting to fail, she could no longer plant magic-mines, and some of the AK47 shots were starting to get past. One of them narrowly missing Mero's head.

Many of the bystanders were either running in panic, or hiding in whatever cover they could find, but the sound of approaching sirens meant that at least one of them had called the police. Mizuchi sighed in relief, as a police van pulled up in front of them, and half a dozen riot police stepped out.

"We'll take it from here," the squad sergeant called out. Mizuchi's relief turned to despair, as he drew a silenced pistol, and aimed it towards them. He fired, and the distinctive red 'feathers' of a tranq-round stuck out of Mero's neck. Mizuchi felt a sharp pain in her neck, and used the 'thumb' on her wing to pull out the dart.

"What the hell!?" she exclaimed, as more rounds were shot into her. It took a total of twelve rounds to finally drop her to her knees.

The last thing she heard, before passing out was the Orcs arguing with them about their cut of the profits

===/===

In the skies, heading for Tokyo

Hiroshi was listening to the radio-chatter between the two helicopters. Not via the headset he was wearing, he was just using his natural abilities.

"This is Delta-one to base. Package Alpha secured. En-route to rendezvous to LZ to Package Bravo coordinates."

"Negative Delta-one. Package Bravo not at this location. Papa-three misidentified possible new merch as Bravo. Change heading to secondary LZ."

"Honey, my headset has gone dead," said Ventris.

"Mine too, Beloved," said Renata.

"Same here, Darling," said Galadriel.

"Sorry kid," said the pilot's voice over Hiroshi's headset. "I know we served with your Momma, but that bounty your Grandpappy put out on you is going to fund our retirement. If you look out of your window, you'll see what will happen to your girls, if you misbehave." A body is pushed out of the other helicopter. "The rook was a good kid, but we can't have him tattling to the authorities. Nothing personal. It's just business."

Unnoticed to the crew of either helicopter, the body fell through a Gate that opened below him.

"You do know Hikari will come for us" Hiroshi replied.

"What can she do? Girl dresses like a fairy. Besides, if she tries anything, we'll shoot one of the girls."

++ShadowStalker013: Did you hear what he said?

++MechaFaerie1337: Yes. I'll back off, for now. Private Winters only has a limited resurrection-window, anyway.

===/===

Location Unknown

Mero slowly regained consciousness. Her head felt like a bad hangover. As she began to take in her surroundings, she realised she was handcuffed to a bathtub. The swaying and rocking she could feel, placed her on a ship, somewhere.

Nearby were several cages, each containing red-haired girls that were roughly the same age as Mizuchi. Where was Mizuchi?

Her thoughts were answered by the sound of a fist hitting flesh, followed by a groan. Mizuchi was in her underwear, and chained by her wrists from the ceiling. Her mouth was gagged, her wings were bound, and her legs and tail anchored to the floor, by further chains. One of the orcs had just punched her in the gut. "That was for Truffle's arm. This" THUMP, groan "is for Skull's shoulder. And THIS" THUMP, THUMP, THUMP "is for my van."

"That's enough, Nazbit," said a human, whose voice matched the 'police sergeant' that shot her. "We can't sell her if she's too damaged. Nazbit moved away from Mizuchi's unconscious body.

"What about that tail?' Nazbit asked. "Can't have that blade sticking her new owner. I'll get the chainsaw."

"Now, now. Not just yet. The buyers need to see how rare this specimen is. She's the first dragonewt I've seen with the wing-thumbs, and a naturally-occurring blade on her tail. I still can't believe it took twelve darts to drop her"

That's because she's a dragon, not a dragonewt, you moron, thought Mero.

"Lonnergane!" called one of the guards. "Delta-one and Delta-two are incoming, with Package Alpha, plus three."

===/===

En-route to the secondary LZ

"I honestly didn't see Freya as the type to settle down and have kids, doc," said Brown.

"I didn't either,"said doc. "She would've been in her sixties when cosplay-girl was adopted."

"Cosplay-girl?" Ventris asked.

"Those fake wings," replied doc. "They were quite well made. All of that detail, too."

"I saw those," said Brown. "All of those little "Deathly Hallows' symbols lining her wings must have taken forever."

"I saw Freya a couple of years ago," said Greene. "She still looks like she's in her twenties."

"How is that possible?" Caulford asked, from the pilot seat.

"Girl was a liminal," said Greene. "During the Onsen Incident, I saw her wings."

"Makes sense UNIT would include a few liminals in the squad," said doc. "Also makes sense she'd adopt so many liminal kids. Didn't she grow up in an orphanage? Probably didn't want these guys to go through what she did."

"Hikari wasn't adopted," said Hiroshi. "Neither were Mizuchi and myself."

"I hate to burst your bubble kid," said doc, "but your mother played for the other team."

"She 'played' for both, actually," said Hiroshi. "Looks like you didn't know her as well as you thought."

===/===

"About time!" Lonnergane exclaimed. "What took you so long?"

"Navigation went haywire," said Brown". Package Alpha has ...abilities... It took twelve tranq rounds, and threatening his girlfriends, to subdue him.

The freight elevator opened, Hiroshi's unconscious body was being carried on Ventris's spider-section, and he was being tended to by a medic. All three girls had their hands behind their heads.

"Keep the kid under, doc," said Delta-leader. "We don't want him messing with the boat's navigation."

"MIIIZUUUCHIII!" screamed Renata.

"What have you monsters done to Honey's little sister?" said Ventris.

"Oh shit!" said Delta-leader. "Rick, what the fuck did you do to Package Bravo?! Greene, Browne, get her down from there. Doc, check her vitals."

"This is FUBAR," said Greene, as he and Brown lowered the unconscious dragon to the floor, and ungagged her. "Doc, how is she?"

"She's been shot at least four times, and someone's been using her as a punching-bag," said doc. "How do you think she is?" He put a stethoscope to her chest. "Fuck! Get the crash-cart! She's fibrillating! If she dies, the client will kill us!"

"That will definitely kill her," said Renata. "She has a binary cardiovascular system."

"Shit!' Brown exclaimed. "That would have screwed us! The defibrillator would have killed her."

"You do know you're already screwed, right?" Galadriel commented. "Your client isn't going to be too happy about the post-capture injuries. That mermaid over there is Meroune Lorelei du Neptune, meaning her mother is going to hunt you to the ends of the Earth, and kidnapping us means that the ends of the Earth won't even be far enough to escape Darling's family. By the way, has anyone here checked their bank accounts lately?"

One of the orcs pulls out his smartphone. "Boss! My accounts are frozen! Even the Swiss and Cayman accounts!"

Everyone not holding a gun checks their phones. "Shit!"

A klaxon starts blaring above-deck.

"Sounds like Hikari found us," said Ventris.

The intercom came to life. "Lonnergane! I'm looking at a very angry cosplay-girl, and she's pointing the cannon of a SW-Dalek right at my face! What did you guys do?"