[u][i][b]XIII, Karnage, Jon[/b][/i][/u] “Fuck…” Zesiro and Gemma began the work of moving boulders from the pile. Gemma wasn’t very strong, but with Zesiro’s help she made a dent in the pile. Zesiro was much stronger than he appeared, perhaps the kid worked out after all. He strained under the larger rocks, but managed, to move enough stones to free the man. With the man freed Zesiro seemed to remember what he was supposed to be doing. “Erm… Who are you? How did you get here?” He had his weapon back in hand, but now was uncertain of which way to point it. He kept it trained on the ground, so that the stranger could see it, but might not feel directly threatened by it. Zesiro tilted his head, his brother’s voice was [i]finally[/i] on the radio... [u][i][b]Vata[/b][/i][/u] “Leave? No! I think this is juuuust what we came here for.” Twain knelt by a set of broken burned bones. He was not disgusted as one should be when seeing such carnage, instead, he seemed curious. “White chalk… but these are not necromantic symbols… I think…” He squinted at the white chalk on the ground. He turned on his radio, and called his brother. “Zesiro. Get to the top of the castle. I think I found something.” Alexavier looked uncomfortable. He carried along the unconscious man that he had found, unwilling to leave him behind. He carried the man like a backpack, the arms acting as straps that Alex held on to. “I think our safety is of more import than your curiosity sir…” The man on his back wheezed quietly. Alexavier walked toward a plume of fire, hoping to at least warm the man, and himself. [u][i][b]Charles[/b][/i][/u] There was silence. Rozalind did not know how to answer. “Mum.” A gentleman with a slurring British accent peaked his head out of the cockpit. “I think we see something up ahead, an old castle or ‘summin.” “Hold on.” She said, and vanished into the cockpit of the aircraft. There was silence, everyone looked at one another uncomfortably. Then the noise came again, louder, and closer. The plane shuddered and rocked, jostling its passengers roughly, knocking over anyone who wasn’t belted in or hanging tight. It would become very hot very quickly; the metal of the aircraft seemed to be heating up. Stomachs drop as the plane began a steady but certainly-much-to-fast decline. A voice over the airplane speakers. “We are going down! Grab your weapons!” The plane continued to heat up, it was like being trapped in an oven. Charles would have a few more moments to react, to feel the plane jostled once again, until one of the soldiers of TIGER ran up to him. It was a woman with long black hair that trailed out from under her helmet. She grabbed Charles by the shirt and the man standing next to him. Then, there was a plume of black smoke, Charles would choke on the smoke, then become suddenly cold. The girl threw him and the man beside him into the snow. He would find himself on the ground outside the plane, which, was still in the air. They had teleported… … The plane, Charles would now see what the noise was and what had besieged the aircraft. It was a dragon. What made that sight so strange, is that dragons do not exist. Charles, and all new members of TRIDENT were assured that though they dealt with the strange and terrible things in the world dragons, unicorns, mermaids, and other childish fantasies did not exist. Perhaps they did once, but that was for the historians and archeologists in TRIDENT to argue. In the field, they were told, they would never find such fantastical things. Yet, there it was. As if it had climbed out of a Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual. Sharp claws, red scales, and impossibly huge jaw that were currently prying the wing from the aircraft. Whenever the dragon breathed out, plumes of flame and smoke blasted the aircraft. The soldier who had teleported Charles to safety wasted no time in watching the strange beast. She disappeared again in a plume of shadow. Several yards away Charles would see her re-appear and drop off two more members of TIGER into the snow. She would do this three more times. Setting down soldiers and equipment in the snow, sometimes near Charles, and sometimes very far away. Then she would not re-appear. The man beside Charles cursed. “SHIT! I didn’t grab my gun…” He turned on the communication device in his helmet. “Den Mother! Merrick calling. Do you read me? Where are you?” The plane and the dragon were both hovering over the edge of the mountainside. The plane itself had no more ability to keep itself air borne. It was ironically the dragon that kept her aloft. The dragon flapping red leathery wings and digging its claws into the metal body of the plane, trapping it in the air, yet keeping it from falling like a tin can down the mountainside. A smoking tin can, for now even the metal itself seemed to catch fire, the whole thing was slowly becoming bright and black at the same time. To the east was the castle. Broken and frozen. Was such a place safe? Or would there be more danger there? [u][i][b] Dimitri, Herbert, Will, Ryann[/b][/i][/u] They would emerge from the tunnel on the lower ledge of the mountain cliff. The castle and her remaining towers perched on the edge of the mountain above them. It looked like there was a path, leading south-west-ish and around the side of the mountain face, perhaps downward. They would also hear the roar of the dragon, and the sound of twisting metal. To the west, over the edge of the world, they would see… An airplane. Then, from somewhere beneath, a great red shadow rose up and clenched the aircraft between it’s great jaws. A dragon.