"Rise and shine, rookie." Ace said as he pulled the blankets off Jake.

Jake groaned in response and made no motion whatsoever to get out of bed. Ace looked at the boy and walked next to the bed. He took its side in both his hands and flipped it.

"I said rise and shine."

Jake got up and glared at Ace. "My head is killing me."

Ace chuckled. "That's what you get for downing a whole bottle of liqueur. There is some coffee and a box of aspirin if you need them."

Jake looked at himself and noticed he still was in the battle suit. He sighed and went for a shower. As he returned to his bed he found some Military clothes with a note written upon it.

Now you are one of us, you dress like one of us.

Aurora.

Somehow Jake had to smile as he read the letter. Sure he was the American dragon and has his own team but this was something different everybody now knew to which group he belonged. He got himself dressed and looked in the mirror on his wall.

"This is tight." He exclaimed as he checked himself. He was wearing a black shirt straight black pants with a holster on his right leg and a black jacket. With his own name and his codename Rookie. He frowned as he read it.

"Yo Ace. Why is codename Rookie?"

Ace chuckled as he put down his paper. "That is because you are the Rookie. It will stay with you till you do something incredible or till you die."

"Oh…okay." Jake said. He was astounded by the way Ace handled something that involved dying. He talked about it as if he was talking about football. Must be of the near death experiences he had. Jake had some being the American dragon and always bragged about it. but sometimes when he was alone he always had a moment of disbelief and was frightened by the fact that he could have died those times. It seemed that Ace did not have this problem.

"Something else." Ace said. "We still need to define what your specialty is."

"Like what? I don't know, I've only been in this type of training for a few weeks."

"Show me your dragon form." Ace said as he got up. "I noticed something but I am not quite sure, so show me."

Jake stepped back and a mystical fire surrounded him. After the mist disappeared Jake stood in his dragon form.

Ace eyed the boy and walked around him examining everything he saw.

"So got something?" Jake asked.

"Your wings they're quite big for your size and age. Can you expand them for me?"

Jake did this and Ace examined his wings. He touched the membrane in several spots.

"A thick membrane you've got here. Top speed flying?"

"I flew 189 miles once. But that was two years ago." Jake answered.

Ace nodded in approval as a smile crept on his face.

"Excellent. Follow me I am going to show you something."

Jake followed Ace they walked through the gardens into the palace. They arrived at the guards quarters and entered. There was a guard who nodded at them. Ace led Jake into a weapon locker. Ace Placed his hand on the lock which made the door pop open. He took out some armor and gave it to Jake.

"Try it on." He said.

Jake did what him was told.

"Okay now go dragon." Ace ordered.

Again Jake did what him was told now he stood in dragon form the armor covering the weak spots of his body and a helmet shielded his face.

Ace whistled.

"Suits you well. You can turn back now."

Jake did this and turned to Ace.

"So now I have an armor for my dragon form I still don't know what my specialty is."

"You are going to be our death from the skies, Jake. But first I want Mortis to make some adjustments to your battle suit with the magic that is contained in the armor you just tried on. If it works what I have in mind you will have a fully shielded modern dragon armor. How does that sound." Ace said.

Jake smiled and followed Ace who moved towards the exit.

XXXX

The Huntsmaster sighed as he rubbed his temples.

"We almost had them. If it wasn't for that Wizard I didn't even know they still used that spell." He mumbled.

"Sir, you want the report on the mission." Another Huntsmaster said.

"shoot, number sixteen."

"We lost eighty percent of everyone we used for the engagement. From the seventy-five Hunter suits deployed only twelve returned. Six of these twelve are so banked up they can't be used anymore. We lost twenty-five percent of our total numbers sir." Number sixteen said.

"They can be replaced." The Huntsmaster said.

"Sir, with all due respect these men and women had lives some had even children. You can't be that heartless."

"You're right. send the families a standard message which gives them our condolences. They sacrificed themselves for a better world. They gave us even more to use against those monsters." The Huntsmaster said uninterested.

"The attack was never made public, sir. The people don't have a clue of the attack."

"Exactly, that was the whole point. We did not attack them they attacked us." The Huntsmaster nonchalantly said.

"I do not understand."

A cruel smile formed on The Huntsmasters face.

"We don't tell them we attacked them, we tell them they attacked us. that will boost our support and it will make even more humans volunteer for the program."

"You can't do that, that's lying." Number sixteen said as he jumped from his chair.

The Huntsmaster shook his head.

"Lying is such a mean word. I would call it. bending the truth in our favor."

XXXX

Shaun O'Neal Walked over the side walk. He finally had made his choice he would not longer support Rodriquez. What he did to all those creatures was cruel. He wondered why he helped him in the first place.

He shook his head.

"He is a good liar. I believed him without a question. How stupid can I be." he cursed himself.

A TV drew his attention as he walked past it. he turned and saw the news lady telling something about sports. He did not know but something told him he had to watch.

"And that wraps up the disappointing season for last season champ, The Lakers." The news lady said. Her attitude changed as the screen behind her showed the words, Magical war.

"There has been another attack on American soil. An island not far from the coast of new York which served as a training base for the newly initiated Huntsclan project was attacked by dragons. Reasons which led to this attack are still unclear. A word from The Huntsmaster."

The screen changed and showed Eric Rodriquez. In black Huntsclan attire.

"My fellow human beings. It is a dark day. This morning at 0600 hours. The training facility at Hunts isle has been attacked by these vile creatures." Eric said. "I will be honest with you and tell you no lies. Everyone who was being trained at that base did not survive. It was a base that trained beginners our more experienced members were not present. Our lost comrades put up a fight and tried to repel the enemy off the island. But no avail. We will mourn our fallen brothers and will not let this pas quietly, we will make these monsters pay."

The screen changed back to the Newswoman again.

"This is the second attack at the humans and it was twice on American soil. We don't know why they attacked us now. In a personal letter from the Huntsmaster he writes that. The president has given him all the resources he need. The only thing that still is needed in this plan is you. therefore he asked us to send a message to people who want to defend their country. If you feel you are this person call the number in now displayed on screen. As John F. Kennedy said; Don't ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. This was Sandra Nogood NYC-news."

Shaun looked at the screen in amazement.

"The son of a bitch. How can he do this to these people. He got to be stopped." He said as he turned and started to run.

End of chapter.

Hope you like.

Onej6