Nathan

(Or, Watch out for Avalanches. Especially ones with LMGs.)

The outpost's entrance came into sight soon after they'd exited the rainclouds.

Nathan shook his head about quickly, flinging most of the rainwater off of his scales and frills.

"Wooh, exhilarating up here, huh?." He shouted to Jyn, who angled his wings toward Nathan to fly beside him.

"I guess. Spectre says the outpost isn't exactly populated as we were led to believe, the thermals he was able to perform aren't bringing up much for results." he said, shooting a worried glance toward the firelight glowing from the cave just above the ocean.

"Nautilus said we just need to tell them what happened and they'll give us a message to take back. I'm thinking I'm not the only dragon who's been poisoned before, if that's the case." Nathan grumbled, dipping his head to dive down.

"Yeah...You're probably right on that one." Jyn sighed, following him down.
They glided for a short moment over the crisp choppy waves of the dark ocean, entering the cave to escape the storm.

Nathan shivered involuntarily, sending more water droplets onto the rough cave floor as Jyn walked ahead of him, not caring for the water coating his scales.

The cave wasn't small, but wasn't exactly a base of operations either, which Nathan figured was why it was an outpost instead of a more valuable location. Torches lined the wall, the flames running on a fuel that appeared to be reeds clumped together with a small copper band. A large sandstone column near the center of the room, appearing to be naturally formed. In the back of the room, a flat sandstone platform seemed to rise from the floor, having stairs leading up the left side. It took up at least fifth of the room, leaving some empty space to the right side of the platform. Atop that, three tapestries lined the back wall, all showing either a pair of dragons flying or a seemly endless city made of dark threads. A table sat in the middle of the platform, with two bottles of strange liquid, perhaps beer.
"Huh. You'd think there would be a few dragons at the door, hm?" Nathan said, grabbing a torch from a bracket on the wall.

"I suppose. These are strange times, for them, and us."

"Maybe. But what does that have to do with the lack of guards?"

"Perhaps they're on break."
"Dragons have breaks?"

"I'd think so. Do they?"

"Hey, I asked first."

Jyn shrugged, turning away. "Spectre said that there's a tunnel behind the third tapestry. I'm thinking that's why they wouldn't need any guards. Maybe they have dragons out here to serve as both a cover and guards of the true secrets." He mused.

Nathan's scales changed to a strange lilac color, but he didn't seem to notice. "How would your creepy mobster in your head know that?" he asked suspiciously.

"He used an echolocation technique that could only be heard by pigeons, sending sound waves bouncing across the walls. I asked him to check for any concealed rooms, or niches and outlines created by possible entrances in the walls."

Nathan looked down, then forced his scales to shift back to bright red. "And he can do all this from your head?" he asked, looking back up.

Jyn nodded, leaping up onto the sandstone platform that the table and tapestries were as his spikes covering his back chimed together. He pulled the black cloth aside, making the city covering it fold together.

He nodded with satisfaction, waving to Nathan. "Come on, I hear voices."

Nathan held back a small smile, then flew up to join him. He entered after Jyn, noting the closeness of the walls.

"This tunnel's awfully narrow," Nathan mumbled with a mischievous tint, knowing Jyn had an issue with claustrophobia.

"Shut up before I freeze your snout and shatter it." Jyn growled, stiffening slightly.

Nathan chickled silently, before leaping back with a yelp of pain as Jyn swatted him on the snout with his tail.

"Baby." Nathan growled, rubbing his nose and glaring.

"Nobody loves you." Jyn muttered, continuing forward.

"Tell me something I don't know." Nathan retorted bitterly.

They entered the next room, which was significantly bigger than the last. Niches lined the walls, looking as if dragons would sleep there on average.

The odd part was, everything was on fire.

Men in steel armor stood around blazing bonfires, chatting and munching on food that was probably in an MRE.

"Oh boy." Nathan inhaled, backing back into the tunnel.
Jyn ignored him, stepping out into the open.
Almost instantly, someone noticed the silvery scales covering Jyn's body. "D-DRAAAGOOON!" He yelled, running toward their campfires.

What the hell are these guys doing here? Who even are they?

Three soldiers got up from the fire, taking rifles with them before taking aim in front of Jyn.
"I'd like to speak to whoever's in charge, if you could be so kind." Jyn said calmly.

What is he doing?! He's gonna get himself killed!

All three soldiers lowered their weapons, mouths agape. "Hold up, you guys can talk?" One asked aloud, before being shushed by the man in front.

Jyn raised an eyebrow. "I believe the term for this would be 'duh'. Who's in charge here?" he asked again, raising an eyebrow.

A man leapt down from a niche dug into a giant stacilite above them, landing behind the ground of soldiers.

He wore a large green bandana over his wild black hair, with a small mischievous smile creeping through his mouth. A large LMG was strapped tightly to his back, clanking softly against his durasteel platemail, which was dyed the scheme of winter camouflage.

He grinned wickedly. "That would be me, lizard-breath."

Jyn blinked. "Oh. That might be the deer we picked up earlier- Wait, that was an insult." He realized.

(If you want an accurate representation of what this guy looks like, he looks similar to Jet from Avatar. No, not the one with the blue people, The Last Airbender.)

"Mm-hm. What's your name, spiky?" The man asked, shooting charismatic glances to either man on his side.

"Jyn Samuels. I'm here with my friend-" He glanced back toward Nathan, who shuddered involuntarily, then stepped into the open, reluctantly walking over to join Jyn.

"Hi." He grunted, keeping his head down.

"Hm. Not too talkative, eh?" The guy asked.

Nathan said nothing, narrowing his eyes at the ground stubbornly.

"Anyways, he and I are looking for the Talons of Peace. Were they here, by chance? I'm not sure if we had the right understanding of the directions-"
"Oh, they probably were," The man interrupted lackadaisically. "You won't find em' here though."

"Why?" Nathan demanded, feeling slightly agitated.

"Because they're busy participating in a little….project." the man explained carefully. "We," he said, spreading his arms out wide to the other soldiers surrounding him, "May have, erm, assisted them in getting there."
Jyn's eyes narrowed into predatory ice-blue slits. "Who do you work for? Perhaps I may have heard of them in my explorations of the engineering field." He asked, his voice hitting a dangerous note.

The man waved his hand in a circle, as if addressing an audience, and bowed. "The United Space Corporate Research and Development group. Now, I'm not a member myself, but a few guys around here are. Me, I work for the United Sp-"
"The United Space Corporate Military, I assume." Nathan finished for him, cutting him off.

His expression showed slight surprise. "Hm. Yeah. How'd you know that?"
Nathan's solid gaze met his. "Hard to forget an enemy uniform."

The man grinned, chuckling slightly. "Ahhh..I knew that name was too familiar. I'd assume you're Nathan Roe, then? Where's your brother, Nick?"
Nathan said nothing, his stare unwavering.

He continued, tapping his chin in mock forgetfulness. "Hm. I seem to remember almost putting a hole the size of a .308 round in the center of his chest. Before he escaped, that is."
Nathan's scales swirled and twisted crimson and coal, his hatred for this man already aptly flowing through his brain.

"What? Where did they go?" Jyn asked, glancing at Nathan worriedly.

The man's eyes widened slightly. "Wait, you mean you haven't found them already? They escaped through the portal-thing, before we blew it into the ground, I mean."

Nathan's gaze flicked back to Jyn briefly, before back to the man.

He chuckled in embarrassment. "Oh, how stupid of me. I almost forgot that you don't know who I am! I'm Avalanche, nice to meet." he said, giving them a cheesy grin.

Jyn frowned uncomfortably, then turned away toward the tunnel. "Well, since the Talons aren't here, I guess we'll be going-"

Avalanche laughed as if he'd just made the funniest joke in the world, even going so far to slap his knee. He pointed to Jyn. "You're funny, you know? Oh god, I might need a breath...But leaving? What gave you that idea? Heh heh."

Nathan flicked his tail in annoyance, not answering as he followed Jyn out.

They had made it at least halfway in before Jyn stopped him. "Spectre told me the USCM were conducting tests with the same neurotoxin that had infected the SandWing we fought in the desert earlier. If what I can assume is right, these guys aren't exactly here to make friends."

Nathan frowned. "We still have a time limit, in case you forgot."

Shaking his head, Jyn took a step forward, then glanced back at him and sighed. "Fine. I'll have Spectre check your bloodstream for foreign particles of the poison later, and perhaps from that we can formulate a cure. Let's just get going before those mercenaries change their mind."

Nathan nodded, following him out.

They pushed aside the tapestry, before Jyn glided down to the floor, one of his silvery white wings brushing against the sandstone column before he touched the ground.
"The rain's gotten worse." Jyn grumbled, glaring down at the raging seas below.

Nathan took a step, before stopping.
What's that noise?
His ears suddenly heard nothing before he was blown into the air in an instant.
"WOOOAAHGHH!" He screamed out, before he managed to barely clasp onto column with his talons.
The tapestry was in flames, and behind it stood Avalanche, grinning before he let out a youthful chuckle.
"Oh, you guys are just so fun! I still can't process that you actually thought we'd let you leave!"

Nathan gritted his teeth, snarling. "You've already kidnapped your fair share of dragons by the looks of it, why the hell would you need more?!"

Avalanche's smile melted slightly. "It's not the fact that you're dragons, it's the fact that you're criminals of the USC and therefore, they can do whatever they like with you, which means they can, and without a doubt, will, I mean, you guys are almost worse than the rebels to them, they really hate you; experiment on you without their normal hesitations because of resource shortage!"

Jyn crouched lower into what Nathan assumed was a battle stance.

That A.I. in his head probably recorded every piece of this, including whenever an enemy dragon got into a combat-related stance or tried to do a move. I bet Spectre could take control of his body to do it for him, to. Wouldn't be surprising.

"Jyn, what was that you said about them 'changing their mind'?" Nathan asked, glancing down at him.
"Aeh, shaddap." Jyn replied.

Wait, what's with the accent?
Jyn's voice had contained something of an italian-american accent, leading to Nathan's slight confusion.

"He's just one guy, Nate. Let's show 'em' we's not gonna get pushed around, eh?" Jyn said, his eyes narrowing. A light misty glow seemed to emanate from them…

I'll figure it out later.
He WAS just one guy, though. Jyn wasn't wrong, none of the soldiers had followed Avalanche through the tunnel.

It's two dragons against one crazy self-absorbed merc dude. We're gonna DEMOLISH him.

Nathan let out a snarl before leaping at Avalanche.

Avalanche smirked, then waved his hand. Suddenly a wave of heat passed over Nathan's body, as he was thrown backward into the tan sandstone wall.

Goddamnit.
A sudden wave of pain surged through his body, tearing into his chest like ravenous teeth trying to rip out his heart.

"You're on fire, kid! Literally!" Jyn yelled, rolling to dodge a blast of flames from Avalanche's palm.

Oh Avalanche, you poor soul.

Nathan thought cruelly.

Semblance, here I come.

"What's wrong, Nathan?" Avalanche chided. "Can't handle the heat?"

"Ignis teneo ad unguem, ut non fiat frigidus ilia" Nathan responded, feeling his words linking through the element busy with killing him.

(Put it in the translator, I don't care.)

Avalanche raised an eyebrow. "Ego te nunc aequalis, Nathan."

The fire's intensity increased, seeming to spread across Nathan's scaled body almost like armor made of the flaming gasses.

"I should tell you, I specialize in pest control." Nathan grinned, leaping to his feet.

The only thing you'll be taking today is the painful after-burns.

"Oh yeah, what do you kill, yourself?" Avalanche asked, his hands ablaze.
That was by far, the worst comeback ever.

"No, just self-entitled assholes who try to kidnap me or my friends."
"Oh, well that's unfortunate."

Nathan charged forward, feeling a blast of flames dissipate and join the fiery inferno that covered his whole body, before headbutting Avalanche in the chest.

"Oof!" Avalanche was clutching his ribs before he hit the ground.

Nathan leapt onto his chest, his fangs an inch from Avalanche's face.
"Ooh. Nice combo there. Didn't think you'd be able to retain semblance so fast."

"Shut up before I melt your face into a charismatic puddle." Nathan snapped.

Avalanche shrugged, looking off to the side.
"Uh, kid, I'd pat you on the back, but uh….you're too hot for me, if ya catch my drift."

"Spectre, right?" Nathan asked briskly, inhaling.

There was a moment of silence.
"Eah" Spectre replied. "The boss let me take over for a bit, but he'll be back soon."

"Oooh, how interesting. An A.I. taking over for its host! I'm betting you'd be congratulated handsomely Jyn. Well, before they kill you, I mean." Avalanche called.

"Ay, you's a real nutjob, you know dat?" Spectre snapped.

"Heheh, I've been told."
Nathan narrowed his eyes. "Enough. Me and Jyn are leaving-"
"I'm still ere, you know!" Spectre muttered.

Nathan ignored him. "And you're going to stay here like a good mercenary and do what you came to do. Which is not to try to pursue us, in case your brain is too undeveloped to understand."

Avalanche just smiled, then nodded solemnly. "Whatever makes you happy."

Nathan sighed in disgust, pressing off of Avalanche's chest roughly.
He strode over to Jyn and Spectre, raising an eyebrow.
"Who am I talking to right now?"

"Um, it's me now." Jyn's voice said, the accent gone.

Nathan let out a sigh of relief. "Next time when you let him take the reins, at least tell me. You scared me a bit there. I thought he took over your body by force. You know, like last ti-"
"He says you should stop worrying like a mother hen." Jyn interrupted, cracking a small smile.

"I can imagine. I just…." He sighed, looking down at his now-extinguished talons and trying again. "I just don't want a repeat of last time. We almost lost you once, and I don't want to leave knowing-"
Jyn stopped him."Nathan, relax. I'm fine. I can control him, and he's been very compliant. You don't need to worry about me."
Nathan stared out at the storm, which had somehow escalated further.

"Okay. Let's go, I don't think I want to die from poison today."

"Crap! The poison takes effect in only a day now!"

"Then let's GO THEN!"

Jyn bolted for the cave opening, Nathan close behind. Bending his knees, Nathan opened his wings and launched himself into the cold, icy storm. The wind tore against his wings, trying to force him into the lightless ocean below.

Jyn was still at the opening in the rock, watching Nathan as he extended his wings.
Suddenly, in a flash of light, a loud boom echoed, the sudden explosion rendering Nathan's eyes and ears useless.
He managed to keep himself aloft, until his vision returned.

There was a giant smoking hole the size of a bus where the entrance once stood, the rocks seemingly had tumbled into the ocean.
And most importantly,

Jyn was missing.

Avalanche walked out into the open, stepping through the rubble with a weapon leveled over his shoulder.

Nathan's fear and anger blended into a single emotion, supplying his body with the energy to retain his combustion aura.

His scales hissed and fizzled from the pounding rain as the fires raged throughout his wings, tail and claws.

"Hmm. The A.I. and Jyn are gone. Nobody to guide you through this now, hm?" Avalanche mused, brandishing his weapon.

Nathan landed before him, the rocks below him becoming bathed in his warm orange light.

"Why?" Nathan asked, cocking his head back.

Avalanche raised his shoulder-mounted weapon, a red glow emanating from the barrel.

"Why not?"

Nathan rolled to the side as the Spartan laser shot through a nearby boulder, cleaving it in two.

He swept back toward his original position, then rammed into Avalanche's side.

The two were sent to the ground, Avalanche popped a knife out of his boot as he gained control, their scuffle ending with Avalanche atop Nathan's chest.

He held the knife to the side as he prepared to swipe, before Nathan caught his arm.

Jesus, this guy's strong.
Nathan twisted his tail behind Avalanche's head, slapping him repeatedly before digging his claws into Avalanche's knife arm.

He groaned in pain, drawing back from Nathan before dropping the knife out of shock.

Nathan rolled back to his feet, snarling.
The rain seemed to work against them both, pushing them toward the rubble-covered ground.

Avalanche yelled out as the ground seemed to shift.

Nathan suddenly found himself falling, before instinctively catching himself with his wings.

He landed inside what he assumed was an underground cave, the floor covered in stalagmites and broken stone.

He lit his scales ablaze once again, searching through the darkness for his enemy.

"What, you have nothing smart to say? No? Oh right, probably because I'm kicking your pansy ass!" Nathan growled at the shadows, before feeling a stiff blow to his chest knock the air from his lungs.

He fell to the ground coughing. "Cheap shot." He growled, before standing up.

A glint of light flashed before stinging pain shot through his side, which had acquired an uneven red gash carved into his scales.

He growled in pain, clutching it briefly before swinging at a shadow, his claws coming up empty.

Damn him!

How the hell did he make the entrance cave explode anyway?!

I hope Jyn's alright, on that note.
Instant pain and shock pumped into his shoulder, a knife sinking into his muscle and ripping out with lighting speed, the serrated blade damaging the flesh further.

He roared in pain, fresh blood pouring onto the rain-soaked stone and twirling into the small puddles it had created as the rain pounded and stung the fresh cut.

"Is that it? Just shadows and knives, huh? Hiding in the dark like some kind of Boogeyman? Maybe you're not real. Like your honor, you know?"

His sight vanished as a white flash erupted in his face, sending him skyward.

"Ungh…" a weightless feeling passed shortly before he felt the impact of hard packed sand trying to break his bones.

"Ahhh-hh...fuuuck…." he groaned, clutching his chest.

Another sound of impact resonated beside his head as a pair of leather combat boots landed three feet from his eyes.

"Funny you should say that." Avalanche remarked, one of his boots coming to rest on Nathan's heaving chest, slowly applying pressure to his weakened ribs.

"Men with honor….heheh. Men with honor die, Nathan. Men with honor-Pssh, fuck, I KILL men with honor. I don't need honor when I'm the last one standing." Avalanche laughed, jabbing his foot into Nathan's ribs.
"Gah!"

"Boogeyman….Bah! As if someone could forget who I am after seeing me blow a hole the size of a fifty cent piece in someone's skull."

Another sickening jolt shot through Nathan's chest, leaving him panting on his belly.

"As if you'd know how to kill." Avalanche chided, a solid click sounding behind Nathan's skull, causing his ears to swivel back.

"Say hi to Satan for me." Avalanche laughed.
N-no….

Fuck.
I'm not going down if he gets to live too.

If I go down, he comes with me.
He concentrated on making his scales light ablaze, then roared.
"HUUURRAAAAAAAGH!"

Nathan no longer could feel the weight of his talons, or the wet sand sticking to his belly, or even the rain. All he knew is that suddenly he was back on his feet, his lips drawn back in a snarl.

"Get the hell off me. The fuck do you think you are anyways?" Nathan growled, his tongue flicking out involuntarily.

"I'm a soldier, doing my job." Avalanche replied, raising his LMG again.

Avalanche fired a barrage of rounds, but the bullets seemed to pass through Nathan, as if he weren't even there.

"Wrong. You're not a soldier, you-"
He was cut off as more gunfire passed through his chest.

Heh. Full combustion semblance.

"Full semblance" was when a user of any form of elemental-based magical abilities became unleashed to their full potential, in which the user's body would literally become that element for a short period of time.

Nathan was a dragon made of fire.

(You know, that last sentence sounded a lot cooler in my head.)

(("If you had told me two years ago when we were starting another war in the middle east we'd end up fighting Nazi Vampires, I would have kissed you on the mouth. But now, all I feel is robbed."))

"You're a monster." Nathan finished, snorting out two plumes of flame from his ghostly snout.

Avalanche chuckled. "Damn right I am."
Nathan was tempted to roll his eyes, but didn't feel like taking any chances, showing how powerful Avalanche was with elemental abilities.

"So what are you going to do now? Kill me?" Avalanche mocked, rolling his eyes with a grin.

"I wish." Nathan replied, knowing what happened next.

"Oh?"

Nathan's semblance wore away as he slowly became solid again and not transparent and hungry flames.

The feeling of the cold rain returning to his scales sent a shiver down his spine before Avalanche lowered his LMG.

"No. I'm going to leave. Jyn is missing now because of you, and I can't have him drowning in the ocean because I decided to kill you slowly." Nathan replied, turning away sharply.
Soldiers began to creep out of the rubble-filled cave entrance, all barking orders at the grunts, who began to clear out the shattered stone.

Avalanche turned toward the soldiers at Nathan's gaze, before Nathan drew back his wings sharply, launching himself into the turbulent storm.

Bullets rattled off behind him shortly after he ascended into the dark storm clouds, but he wasn't hit by anything, and soon after the bullets ceased firing.

(Note to self: Find "The greatest advice ever")

I hope they don't have any aircraft with them.

Seawater stung his eyes as the raging winds tore against his wings, pressing him backward into the dark clouds as he beat his wings harder to compensate.

He groaned from the strain, the wind still pushing him back with immense force.

Never….had this problem….with my elemental wings….

He wasn't feeling very hot, if you get my meaning. Yes, that was a pun.

(So, I've worked out the kinks here. I think. The characters who were self-taught to fly, can't fly efficiently, because of their inability to realize how important the tail is for flying with that much body mass. The tail is used basically as a massive rudder, kinda like a boat. Sure, maybe they can go in the general directions perfectly fine by tilting their wings like an airplane would to change directions, but any options of evasion or rapid turns would be overruled by the fact that the tail helps the stability and effectiveness of the turn, and is only creating dead weight sitting there limp in the air. Woo, that felt good to say, just saying.)

Thunder shook the air, sending trembles across his soaked wings.

A flash of lightning briefly illuminated the dark, continuously alternating seas.
"JYN!?" Nathan called out, getting a mist of rain on his tongue as he shouted. "JYN, WHERE ARE YOU!?"

A fleeting gust slammed into his wings, sending him scrambling to retain altitude as his wings began to fail.

"JYYYYN!?" He yelled again, louder than last time. The storm provided him with no answer, just the rumbling storm clouds and choppy seas. "SAY SOMETHING! PLEASE!" He screamed, feeling his throat rattle.

He continued to battle the winds, beating his wings harder with each oncoming gust that impacted them. His muscles screamed, aching from so much strain.

"PLEAS-" He was cut off as a freak gust blew him upward, sending him tumbling in the air, out of control.

He flapped his wings, attempting to right himself, but soon felt the rain pressing him back toward the ocean. Nathan saw the dark waters approaching rapidly.

The last thought that went through his head was him hoping that the water was as deep as it looked, before everything went black.