"Speach"

'Thought'

[Writing]

"I think it's dormant now…"

Sparrow flinched, before relaxing upon realizing that it was Summit speaking.

"Sorry?"

"I think it's sleeping." he repeated.

She blinked a few times, before noticing that he was right. The giant had stopped moving and fallen silent except for the hissing it made every once in a while, almost as if it was softly breathing.

"Alright, let's go." Summit continued, and before she got a chance to further think about it he, to her horror, jumbled off the cliff to glide down to the creature below.

"What are you doing?" she hissed, trying to make as little noise as possible, before quickly gliding after him and grabbing his arm.

"I'm going down to investigate. There's no way something this big would have slipped past our patrols all this time… or past anyone actually. Something is up with this creature… if it's even a creature at all."

"Maybe it's simply very good at killing anyone who spotted it?" she countered as she continued to drag him back to safety.

"I doubt it. There has to be more and I'm pretty sure that those scavengers that attacked you have something to do with it."

They had landed a few hundred meters away from the thing and Summit was gently freeing himself from her grip.

"Are you sure this is safe?"

"No, that's why I need you to stay behind. If anything happens to me, you need to report to the queen."

"What?!"

"This is not up for discussion. I'm responsible for keeping you safe and…" he suddenly froze.

"What are you doing here?" a voice behind her suddenly asked.

She whirled around and came face to face with a patrol of four armed SeaWings.

—000—

"Robin?"

Robin immediately jolted awake when his name was called, his guard training kicking in. A few seconds later he was out of bed.

"Yes, what do you need me for?"

"We spotted a group of dragons near the excavator. We can't say for sure what they're doing, but it are too many to simply be the usual observers."

"I see… Thanks for informing me, I'll assemble the team to check it out."

He quickly put on his armor, before leaving the hut, grabbing his helmet on the way out.

"Enforcer team!" he shouted at the huts next to his, where the rest of the group was sleeping. "Get ready and meet up in front of the armory! We got a dragon situation!"

They arrived a respectable 5 minutes later, all of them ready and present except for Jimmy who looked like he had fallen out of bed (which probably had been the case) and didn't manage to suppress a tired yawn, which kind of messed up his professional-looking attitude.

Robin decided to pretend he didn't notice.

"We have reports of multiple dragons stalking the excavator, presumably Ocean-dragons, but we can't say for sure. Numbers are estimated to range around 5 individuals…"

"I assume we need to check it out?" Jerom guessed.

"Correct."

Once everyone was ready he took the lead, heading in the direction the guard had told him to go, happy for the helmet to hide his expression.

It was somewhat nerve-wracking now that they were actually about to face a dragon. While he was confident of his own abilities due to years of training, there was however a new type of responsibility he could feel heavily weighing on his shoulders.

He had never been a leader before.

Being a soldier was one thing and while he couldn't say that he was used to risking his life, he was able to handle it and knew the dangers his job brought with him.

Being a leader, however, was different. It wasn't just staying alive and holding the line so that those behind him could live. No, he was the one building the line and upholding it. Jerom, Anturia, Jimmy… they were his responsibility now and they expected him to lead, trusted him with being successful.

Failure no longer would lead to his death… no it would lead to the death of others… and Robin didn't know if that much responsibility was something he was capable of handling.

When Gamma offered him the position, Robin had accepted without a second thought… second thoughts which were now coming back to bite him.

However, if not him, who else should do it? Who else was there to pull this trough and keep the line that protected humanity from dragons?

He felt a shifting in his backpack and Basil placed his head on his shoulder a second later. This helped somewhat at calming him.

Gamma trusted him, his team trusted him and the people trusted him. He couldn't fail them!

He took a deep breath beneath his helmet and with a nervous feeling in his stomach marched on.

Hopefully, he would be able to meet their expectations.

—000—

Gamma carefully handled the levers of the Armory, the metal construct rumbling along the dirt path with a rhythmic hissing of the steam engine.

He had chosen night to try out the vehicle as he wished to avoid being seen by anybody, especially the spy he suspected hiding somewhere in town, to find out more about him and his inventions.

Gamma would prevent that to the best of his capabilities. Others couldn't be allowed to steal his technology!

On the downside of this was however the fact that he was driving at night, with nothing but two oil-lanterns modified to function as floodlights guiding his way.

The ride continued in silence, with nothing but the Armory's hissing and rattling breaking the silence to keep him company.

He felt quite at ease despite having left the safety of the harbor, and the driving felt surprisingly relaxing, almost as if he had picked up an old habit he had long forgotten he loved…

[Flashback…]

Gamma silently drove through the darkness, the illumination of the moon hidden by a clouded night sky.

That wasn't a problem however as countless floodlights pierced through the darkness from both sides of him as many more vehicles drove along his side, although he couldn't exactly identify them as they were hidden by shadows and blinding lights.

Instead, he looked forward into the night and the giant structure that was looming in the distance at the foot of an even bigger mountain. Dark black smoke came from the tip of said mountain, making the sky even darker.

The only things that broke through the night were regular flashes and beams of light that were directed at the sky above. It took him a bit of observation, but then he could see why.

Dragons! A whole army of them, maybe more, were swarming the giant building like a pack of hungry wolves, regularly dive-bombing it, before being driven back again by the flashing lights of the defenders.

Something big was going on, and he had the feeling that it was his job to defend the giant building at the foot of the volcano. This would also explain the enormous amounts of vehicles that were currently heading towards the battle.

His gut told him this place was important, although he couldn't exactly remember why. He could however recall one thing, a single piece of information, which came in the form of a name…

Inferno energy-facility.

[…]

Gamma snapped back to himself, hitting the brakes as he was on a straight collision course with a tree. It wasn't in time however and a loud crash followed shortly after.

He blinked startled as the tree fell over with a heavy crash, having been severed at its base. The Armory on the other hand didn't bear a scratch.

"Alright, enough checking out for today…" he mumbled, turning the vehicle around to drive back to base.

Nevertheless, he wasn't able to get a clear mind, the flashback still spooking around his mind.

New chapter finally out!

It took a lot longer then expected and future uploads will slow down due to the school year coming to an end and the tests that come with it, but I'll try to contine uploading.

Tell me what you think and if there's other feedback feel free to tell me. :D