"Here we are… Dragon City!" They arrived at the enormous spire. And in a quieter voice: "Home of unintelligent dragons." She snorted, unimpressed, as a quadruped red and blue dragon trotted by, with a rider clad in a white burnt jacket and dark blue pants.
"Humph, notice the riders, giving 'their' dragons no dignity by riding on their heads!" She scoffed. "The least they can do is ride on their backs!"
"Spytfyr," the rider growled.
"Back off Penn, this does not concern the likes of you, human." She snarled. She glanced to Aerrow, who was looking uncomfortable, "You," She indicated Penn by jabbing her jaw at him, "deserve to feel what it's like to be used by others."
And with that, Spytfyr revved the engine, leaving out Penn's argument to the rare sound of a draconian-made engine.
"Follow me Storm Hawks!" She rode off, and with a final glance at the gaping teen, Aerrow and his squad sped off too. Spytfyr led them up a series of ramps through dangerous-looking city. She leveled off and turned to a central building, Precinct.
"Who was he?" Aerrow asked.
"Down City racer. No importance whatsoever. His enemy is Word Paynn." Spytfyr shook her head.
"All Sky-riders, except my squadron," she raised a single claw for the one exception, "are sent to Precinct. There they are detained. And good luck; you'll need it. I've snuck into and out of Precinct more than enough. See ya…"
"You know the place then." Aerrow pointed out.
Spytfyr grunted, and relaxed her shoulders, knowing what Aerrow was asking her. "Fine, I need my squadron." She didn't look back as she spoke, but her eyes swiveled back to rest on Aerrow. 'Where did I see him before?' she thought. 'That's right… there.'
In Precinct, cell #2695
"So, this is how you treat guests?" Finn yelled at the guard. "Wait until my squadron finds out; they'll kick your butt."
He ignored Finn.
"Where am I anyway?" He turned to face the other inmate, a long, serpentine, light blue lizard, smaller than the one that had carried him off.
"Dragon City." It said in a voice void of emotion.
"Oh… " Finn, for once, was unsure what to say.
At the Silver Streak
"H'm, not a fancy airship, but she gets us from place to place." Spytfyr smiled.
"Not bad at all." Aerrow looked up at the cruiser, bearing the name 'Silver Streak' on its starboard side. It looked like the Condor on steroids. A dragon-sized Condor.
She had four oval-shaped pontoons, two to each side of the main landing strip and living quarters. Eight powerful engines jutted out from the main pod. Emergency chutes ready to spring outward lined the entire carrier.
"There she is, the Streak."
As if on cue, the slider came out another dragon trotted down. "These guys giving you trouble?" The dark purple dragon asked.
"No, Dork. Do you know who they are?" Spytfyr asked. "These are the new Storm Hawks, I've finally found them. Anyway, Aerrow, come here, I wanna show you something." She walked toward the ship, and Aerrow followed suite, leaving the rest of his squadron with Spytfyr's brother, Derek.
Spytfyr led Aerrow through the ship, and Aerrow noticed that it was laid out in the same pattern as the Condor, except everything was dragon-sized. They came to the bridge. The insignia on the table was of a legless, winged dragon flying. It's wings outspread made it look similar to the Storm Hawk's hawk. Its spines actually rose out of the silver beast, to form lumps in the center of the table, shaping the Atmosian mountain range, the Draconias. Fourteen points of stone surrounded the table, each of a different color; Red, blue, green, black, silver, and gold made up the six main points, then brown, light blue, light green, orange, purple, turquoise, white, and crystal. But the strangest thing was, that all the stones were contained in glass coverings.
Up the stairs behind the bridge they went.
Passing by the living quarters, a song blared from a room that would have been Stork's, causing Aerrow to flinch.
"Hial!" Spytfyr roared to the dragon in the room. "Turn it down, or use that MP3 player…"
"Kay…" The volume went down.
They walked down into the right-hand bulbs, most of which weren't used as engines. They were stacked with crates and supplies of various uses and sizes, but many paths through the boxes.
Out in the second cargo area, Spytfyr crouched down beside a crate with the Storm Hawks emblem on it.
"This chest. The original Sparks found it in the wreckage of the Condor. It belonged to your father, Aerrow. Open it."
Aerrow inspected the latches of the trunk. He found the lock and the keyhole in he shape of the medallion that swung on a chain around his neck. He took it out and fit it into the indent. The latch clicked, whirred, and opened. He looked inside, and was speechless over what he saw.
"My father's stuff…" Aerrow gaped. Spytfyr had slipped away, leaving Aerrow with his memories.
"He's in the secondary starboard hold." Spytfyr smiled, and looked toward a red and yellow bi-pedal dragon. "He opened it." She looked back, wondering if she should do what she was about to do. She held her head high and trotted into the other cargo bay. Collecting up some odd armor pieces, she trudged back into the hold where she had left the Storm Hawk.
"Here's more." She placed her load of metal beside Aerrow, who sat beside the trunk. "Now let's go find your friend."
Outside the Ship
"This is my squadron. Hial, our driver."
The red and yellow dragon saluted un-formally.
"Derek, my little brother is our navigator, crystalline and draconium specialist, and mechanic."
The purple dragon nodded his long-chinned head. "Hey!" He yelled at the 'little brother' comment. "I am not. We're twins."
"Fraternal, thank goodness…" Spytfyr murmured to Aerrow. "Nial, Hial's sister, is our driver."
A rose-colored bi-pedal dragon grinned, looking like she wanted to eat someone, and Aerrow shifted away. Nial closed her mouth and smiled.
"And Flayme, my co-pilot and/or 'mission specialist'… Where's Flayme? Flayme!" Spytfyr glanced around behind her for the quadruped lizard.
A smaller, red version of a dragon slid up onto Spytfyr's shoulder. She looked at Radarr in curiosity. She crowed and cocked her head, pondering what Radarr was.
"Your sharpshooter has apparently gone missing, right?"
Aerrow nodded.
"And, Hial, where's Indygo?"
"She went out today to see Krystall. She hasn't come back."
"Artha's probably got her locked up. I'll get her after we save… umm…" She clicked her claws
"Finn" Aerrow said
"Finn." Spytfyr finished. "Let's go." She trotted over to her skimmer and sat on it. The others went into the Streak and came down the ramp on their own without Hial. Finally, the last of the squad came down on her own.
Spytfyr led the way back down into the city, with the Storm Hawks flanked closely by their counterparts: Aerrow and Radarr with Spytfyr and Flayme; Junko and Nial; Piper beside Derek.
"Stop. Down here." Spytfyr pointed to a shaft off the main road.
The pipe was, thank goodness, an air duct, better than many the Storm Hawks had traversed.
"Keep your voices down. Sound carries through here. Can you believe they patrol air vents too?"
"Probably because they are so big, a dragon can fit in?" Piper pointed out the obvious.
"True…"
"Stop!" Piper yelled, but too late.
Spytfyr and Aerrow shouted out as they fell down a vertical shaft…
