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"Stand down people…" Makael called out, as he hung up the phone, wiped his face and looked around the room with an unreadable expression. Seeing the confused and worried expressions on the faces of the people around him; Dragan's second in command shook his head and rolled his eyes. "I don't know all the details but I have it on reasonably good authority that the situation has been taken care of; from what I've been informed it seems some necromancer that was on site was just using the Gates of Hell to 'flush' a newly ascended second level demon."
The gathered warriors stared at their leader blankly then turned and looked at each other with incredulous expression. Finally the combined thoughts were summed up by an agitated snarl from Snowleo. "Holy Shit, what the fuck were they smoking?!"
"Hey, I'm just going by the intelligence I was given…" Makael snapped then snarled silently at his own outburst and shook his head at the grumbling curses that met that statement
"Okay, seeing that we're not about to have the entire population of some hell dimension spill out into Paris, we don't have to put as much of a rush on this prep and we can be a little more subtle. Snowleo, gather the appropriate members of the Hunt and send them in as a point team; we need a reliable recon of the situation… Call the mages at the Glade and all the ones you have on retainer in the Paris area and have them work up a portal. I don't care how much it costs, don't worry I'll explain the expense to Dragan when he… gets back from vacation; but we need that team on-site ASAP!" Makael frowned as he turned and received a nod from the nearby white-haired man before turning to Kahr'l.
"Kahr'l, while that team is gathering intel and securing our base of operations in Paris, I want you to prep two of the Dragon Arms teams. The first I want in the air within an hour of the Hunt's departure; they are to investigate the site and see if we do or don't have the beginnings of a Hellmouth there. I want the other team to be prepped to the gills, I want them to be able to move in the moment they hit the ground, set up either temporary or permanent on-site security measures and guard positions to keep any 'unfavorable' elements away until we can be sure that area has had a chance to rebalance itself… last thing we need is for some yahoo to find and use that spot to form yet another Hellmouth on this planet!"
Snowleo and Kahr'l looked at each other and gave a knowing nod before answering. "We will make the necessary arrangements, Makael."
"Makael, what do you think you're doing?" Chyra asked her voice full of shock and curiosity as she came in for a landing on the table that was being used to prep for a emergency deployment of Dragon Arm's resources. Her arrival caused almost everyone of the team and section leaders in the 'command center' to turn in her direction with surprised expressions.
"I was getting ready to go deal with an opened Hellgate, Chyra…" Makael growled as he studied the maps and lists of assets in the target area, trying to make sure he was reading it correctly "Psymon, why in the name of hell don't I seem to have a list of our heavy assets in Paris?"
"Makael, do you need …" Chyra began but was cut off by Psymon's reply.
"For 2 damn good reasons; first off according to the records I've got you haven't needed any more than medium to light assets there in over a century," Psymon said as his image replaced the world map on the computer screen built into the wall, showing him franticly digging his way through stacks of file folders with a phone held to his ear by his shoulder. "Secondly, according to my files Paris was named as a neutral city in the cease fire agreement with the Vatican, so having heavy assets permanently stationed there might have been seen as an attempt to add it to ours by attrition."
"Makael, you can't…" Chyra tried again only to be cut off again this time by Makael.
"So what," Makael snorted in disgust. "It's not like those dress-wearing perverts have actually followed any of the terms of the agreement. I know for a fact Dallas is also listed as a neutral city, but they still have their pet psychopath's headquarters set up there!"
"Makael…" Chyra began grinding her teeth, her frustrated glare moved back and forth between Psymon and Makael when they cut her off again seeming to not even notice her presence.
"If you are referring to that Jack Crow guy the boss was ranting about, according to what I've found on him he's an independent contractor, who only works for them on a case by case basis…" Psymon said as he suddenly held up what looked like a of a computer magazine, opened it to the centerfold and promptly dropped the 'phone', as he gave an awed whisper. "Oh baby… four tetrahertz dual processing…"
"Yeah right," Makael scoffed as he studied the map in front of him. "I guess that's why they've got a god damned priest living with him!"
"Whatever you say…" Psymon replied distractedly as he drooled over the magazine.
"I was being sarcastic, Psymon."
"I don't think he heard you, Makael." Chyra chuckled at the look on Makael's face when he looked up from the map and saw Psymon's image on the screen. She then blinked as she finally noticed the other people in the room looking at her with varying degrees of surprise and curiosity. "Something I can help you guys with?"
The soldiers looked at each other for a moment before one of them spoke. "We were just wondering, seeing as you're here, if the boss was back from vacation…"
"Vacation?" Chyra looked at them blankly for a moment, then blinked and shook her head with a sigh. "Oh yeah; sorry guys, I didn't go with him this time…"
"That's alright, ma'am… you wouldn't happen to have any idea of when he will be returning, would you?" one the senior section leaders asked as several other officers seemed to wilt slightly in disappointment.
"When he gets back I suppose," Chyra's eyes narrowed slightly. "Any particular reason for your sudden interest?"
"Yes ma'am," the section leader stiffened slightly in indignation at the implication behind her inquiry. "The status reviews are currently scheduled for the beginning of the month and I wanted to know if they would need to be rescheduled."
"No, don't bother..." Chyra smirked at the officer. "Dragan said that, if he wasn't back in time, Makael, Kahr'l, and Noel were to handle the reviews. There anything else you need, kiddo?"
"No, Ma'am;" the officer nodded politely to the miniature dragon, "thank you for your time."
Chyra watched the 'noncoms' file out before giving Makael a withering glare. "Taking a vacation? What, you couldn't come up with something that was a more obvious cover story… Like he's visiting a sick friend?"
"Bite me, Chyra! I had to tell them something! It was the easiest and most believable way to explain his disappearance without having half the planet looking for him!" Makael growled as he rubbed his eyes.
"Believable?! In the 1500 yrs I've known your father; the closest he's ever come to taking a vacation was hiring out to guard a merchant that went on a trip to the Bahamas." Chyra replied sarcastically and rolled her eyes. "I'm surprised someone hasn't called you on it already."
Makael chuckled. "From what I've overheard, most of our people think I meant that Cles 'laid down the law' and made him take her on a 'real honeymoon' somewhere they could have some uninterrupted time alone."
"Makael, the Fa'lur culture's version of a honeymoon takes place before the marriage…" Chyra shook her head with a pained expression, "not to mention the fact that Dragan wouldn't have just left."
"Would you rather I had just told everyone that's asked for him that he's missing…? Because I doubt that would go over really well with some of the people that have been trying to contact him!" Makael sighed and ran his hand over his face. "How is Cles doing?"
"As well as can be expected, I guess… I was about to go to the medical center to check on her." Chyra shook her head and sighed. "I had Cles talk to the doctors so they could to reassure her that he's not going to be a vegetable or anything like that when he wakes up. Then I gave her leave so she could spend sometime with him if she's able to sweet talk one of them into taking her to him; which could be a good or bad thing considering he hadn't given her *any* advance warning that this would happen."
"Yeah, I heard about that… I take it that you haven't been able to get them to talk yet, huh?" When Chyra huffed out a bit of smoke and shook her head, Makael shook his own and sighed. "You know there are times when I think my pop is the smartest person on the face of the planet, then I hear stuff like that and can't help wondering if he has any common sense at all."
"Sound off people…" Dragan called out, looking around the room as he wiped his face smearing Scourge blood across it in the process. After the calls of clear came back to him he allowed himself to take stock of the damage done to the club. "God damn it, these fucks are really starting to get on my nerves! This is gonna cost a fucking fortune to fix! Sergeant, front and center!"
A man double-timed it across the room, snapped to attention in front of Dragan and saluted without saying a word. Dragan slowly walked around the man, looking him over as he went, taking in the warrior, noting the man's many scars;, his gaze lingered on the names tattooed on his arm for a moment before he continued on, noting the mans injuries as well, until he was standing directly in front of the soldier again looking at the name and rank on his uniform thoughtfully.
"At ease, solider…" the man instantly fell into a parade rest.
"Sergeant Todd," The solider showed almost no reaction to his name but still managed to make it clear he was listening "did I order your team to get involved in this battle?"
"No, sir." Todd said with military precision in a monotone voice.
"So, you admit that you and your men knew you were violating my standing orders not to get involved in civilian matters unless I expressly order you to, when you engaged the enemy…" Dragan crossed his arms and glared at him. "So what led you to decide to take action against orders?"
"Sir, I take sole responsibility for any violations, I made the decision to get involved when it became obvious the size of the force was significantly larger than what intelligence had indicated, there were inadequate forces on site to stop a force of that size, sir," the sergeant said staring straight ahead. "This club is owned and has security provided for it by Dragon Arms Security Inc; therefore as it is part of our organization it is not a civilian instillation. So we were not violating your orders as we did not involve ourselves in a civilian matter."
Dragan leaned towards the sergeant until their noses where nearly touching. "Are you trying to tell me how to interrupt my own orders, Sergeant Todd?"
"Sir, no, sir."
"Good, I would hate to think you would do something that stupid so soon after showing you can think on your feet." Dragan smirked and slapped the soldier on the shoulder. "Next time make sure to radio 'everyone' … the new guy almost shot you."
"Sir, yes, sir."
"Okay, Sergeant, I want you to take charge of policing the bodies." Dragan motioned to the bodies strewn out all over the room. "I want all of the bodies checked for booby traps and the Scourge bodies disposed of by 1900 hours… bag any of our casualties, get them to the morgue for prep to send them to the Glade or wherever else their families may want them sent for internment and send a casualty report to my office when your done."
"Sir, yes, sir…" Todd began to turn and leave when Dragan stumbled and grabbed the bar rail with a disoriented look. "Are you alright, sir?"
Dragan blinked at him dully, grabbed the side of his head and shook it as he leaned heavily against the bar. "Shit, I can't…"
Todd eyes went wide as Dragan suddenly dropped like a puppet with its strings cut, and just barely managed to catch the ancient mercenary in time to keep his head from hitting the floor. Lowering the unconscious form the rest of the way to the floor, Todd did the only thing he could remember from his training that could possibly help. "MEDIC!"
Beep, Beep, Beep…
<How could this happen?> Cles listened to the machine beep, as she stared unseeingly at the unconscious man lying in the room's bed, lost in thought. <You've the strongest person I ever met; I've never seen you with so much as a sniffle and you shrug off injuries that would kill most, so how could you *just* collapse and fall into a coma?>
"How are you doing, Cles?" The Fa'lur started at the unexpected voice, turned and gave Chyra a look which made the diminutive dragon wince and look embarrassed. "Sorry, I guess that was a stupid question…"
"What's going on?" Cles hissed, then clicked her beak at the smaller being in frustrated annoyance, her ears laying flat against her skull "I've known him for more then a hundred years and have never seen him with so much as a cold! So why did he suddenly just drop into a coma?"
"Damn it…" Chyra sighed shaking her head. "I really wish he had told you about this himself… it would have made this whole thing a lot easier."
"Chyra…" Cles hissed as her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on or do I get to use you to make a watch!"
"I wouldn't try that if I was you…" Chyra growled in a tone that has been known to make hardened warriors flinch, then sighed and shook her head "Sorry, Hon. I didn't mean to snap at you like that. Look, let's go to the cafeteria and get you something to eat while we talk."
"I'm not hungry!" Cles objected firmly. "Now answer the question!"
"When was the last time you ate?" When she didn't answer Chyra shook her head and sighed. "Well then I'm not going to answer you until we are in the cafeteria and you have eaten something."
"Fine, I'll go!" Cles growled as she reached out, picked up the startled Chyra and stormed out of the room; so nobody was there to hear either the sound of movement coming from the air ducts or see the multiple points of light behind the vent cover.
"There, I'm finished, so start talking!" Cles exclaimed as she dropped the fork to the now empty tray. "What's wrong with Dragan?"
"Alright a deal is a deal," Chyra unconsciously looked around making sure they were alone even though she knew that aside from Dragan's best and most trustworthy people the facility had no one else in it from the moment Dragan had been brought in. "To answer your question: nothing is wrong with Dragan, he's just learning that everyone including himself has limitations."
"What in the hell are you talking about?!" Cles nearly yelled in frustration as she rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"I was getting to that, now if you will keep from interrupting for a few minutes I'll explain." Chyra glared at Cles pointedly until the Fa'lur gave a small nod. "Alright, you've probably noticed Dragan doesn't seem to sleep the same way most people do… instead he 'sleeps' more like a shark, just sort of spaces out letting parts of his brain 'shutdown' while the rest keeps his body running on automatic, usually while he's doing something like clean his guns, and it lasts until either something happens to 'wake' him or he comes out of it on his own…"
"Yeah, managed to scare the shit out of both of us the first time I stumbled on him during one of his 'naps'." Cles whistled in amusement at the memory. "I always just assumed that it had something to do with what he is…"
"Well, it does and it doesn't; it's true dragons *can*do the same thing, however it's not something that should be done except in emergencies." Chyra scratched her chin as she thought of how to explain. "There are side effects, and if used too often can lead to problems from the fact you aren't totally resting your mind or body, so most dragons would just go ahead and sleep… it was a very light sleep but it was still sleep."
"What kind of problems?" Cles asked glanced towards the room Dragan was in worriedly.
"Nothing that would cause serious damage…" Chyra assured her quickly. "The most common would be irritability, short temperedness, things like that… at least until they reached the point their body can't take it, then it forces them into a kind of hibernation. Now you see, most dragons hibernate and normally it's sort of like the way a bear does it, only a lot easier to wake; if disturbed at all we wake up, instantly ready to defend ourselves, our eggs or our horde. However if you've been doing that, your body is not in the same shape as it should be, so like a human that stays up until they pass out from exhaustion you crash and crash hard. Their body is worn out more than it should be so it takes more for it to recover… and until they do they can't wake up, you could march the entire Marine Corps-all of them drunk-followed by a brass band and the Vienna boys choir through their lair without them so much as twitching."
"So you're telling me that not only did he knowingly do this to himself, but he also didn't think he should bother to tell me this was going to happen." Cles blinked at the diminutive dragon several time before speaking again. "How long is this going to last?"
"If he was a normal dragon, it would be years or possibly even centuries," Chyra shook her head and snorted. "Our only bit of luck in this is that he isn't normal; with Draca helping to speed up his body's recovery it shouldn't take more than three to six months to recover. However the really, really bad news is that until then he's completely helpless! So if you're going to harm him for not telling you about this please wait until he wakes up or it will take even longer for him to wake up."
"That was what I was planning." Cles snorted in annoyance. "After all, what would be the point of hurting him over this if he wouldn't even be aware of it?"
Chyra opened her mouth to reply but trailed off as a large group of doctors and nurses rushed past, then took off in pursuit when Cles got to her feet and quickly followed. They caught up to the group at the door to Dragan's room, pushing her way past the people gathered around the door. Cles finally made it into the room then just stood there blinking at the bundle of wires and IV's hanging beside the empty bed in shock, until she noticed something bright red laying on the floor beside the bed.
Cles slowly walked over to the bed, reached down and picked the object up. She slowly turned it, trying to figure out what it was… then the answer hit her with a jolt and her hand clenched, crushing the little hat as she hissed the answer. "Krisle…!"
"Oooooookaaaaaaaaaa," a small high pitched voice came from behind her. "Gwen-wady need Kwisle?"
Cles' head snapped around at the familiar call and saw that peeking around the privacy curtain was a small reptilian about 15 inches tall and 18 inches long, with a gecko-like head and a semi-humanoid body that closely resembled a Velociraptor. The small body was nearly completely hidden by grayish robes and red hats that curved upward with a scoop-like indentation near the top on the front. With a Raptor like shriek Cles dove at the Krisle, which screamed and began running around the room with Cles in hot pursuit. "When I get hold of you I'm gonna slow roast you over an open fire and have you for dinner, you stupid little rodent!"
"Kwisle not wodent, Kwisle is Kwisle!" The Krisle yelled as it ran under the bed to the far side of the room then slid to a stop as it found it had run into a corner. Turning around, it found Cles towering over it blocking any escape and cringed. "Please no hurt Kwisle, Kwisle no bad!"
"What did you do with Dragan?!" Cles grabbed the Krisle lifted it so she could look it in the eye and gave it a firm shake to emphasize each word.
"Gwen awake potect Kwisle, Kwisle potect Gwen when sweeping!" the little creature said dazedly as it held its head in both hands. "Kwisle feel bad!"
"WHERE… IS… HE?!" Cles hissed and shook the Krisle again.
"Kwisle no know, Kwisle no know!" The Krisle yelped as it was whipped back and forth. "Only Graud know, Graud no tell Kwisle, only tell Kwisle keep Gwen in secret safe place, Shhhhhhh!"
"Cles put the Krisle down." Chyra ordered in a firm tone.
"Not until it tells me where he is or how to find him!" Cles snapped turning the glare she had been giving the now sick-looking Krisle on Chyra.
"Dragan will be very, very upset with you if you harm it;" Chyra stated reasonably. "Besides, you'll never get a Krisle to talk about a secret, especially if you try it that way!"
"Kwisle tummy feel weird… *baaaarrrrrf*"
Cles' eyes widened at the sound and her body stiffened at the moist warm feeling spreading across her wrist. When the smell hit her, reflexes took over, causing her to drop the Krisle as she began vehemently cursing as she jerked her wrist back and forth in an effort to get the offending substance off it. When she finally got herself back under control she found that the Krisle had been joined by a much larger reptilian which was crouched between her and the Krisle.
It was about two and a half feet long and around two feet tall, with a much more heavily muscled version of the Krisle's body covered with leathery greenish-brown scales and Cles couldn't help noticing that it's wedged shaped head looked vaguely like the 'raptors' from that movie, Dragan had taken her to 'Jurassic Park'… the main differences being the oversized muscles that were opening and closing it's jaws slightly and the wide rough plate on the top of its head. As Cles looked into the slit pupils of its yellowish green eyes she got the distinct feeling that it was daring her to try and get past it.
"Do not try and get past it, Cles… Don't even move! Gar Krisle live to protect their smaller cousins, they can bite harder than a snapping turtle and can strike as fast as some snakes… if you piss it off you're going to lose a body part; so just let me handle this! "Chyra said firmly but with an edge of nervousness before turning to the larger creature.
"Hey, Gar," the Gar grunted in acknowledgement of Chyra but its eyes didn't waver from Cles. "It's okay now; she's Dragan's mate and is just very upset that he's gone. So why don't you just take the Krisle home… please?"
The Gar continued to silently glare balefully at the Fa'lur for a moment longer before speaking. "Why Gwen mate hurt Krisle?"
"You rodents stole my mate!" Cles growled indignantly.
"Steal?!" The Krisle looked up giving her a 'hurt child' look. "Kwisle no steal Gwen, Kwisle awways potect Gwen when big sweep, Gwen tell Kwisle okay, keep safe, keep secret, shhhhhh!"
"You know, on second thought, I think Dragan has the right idea…" Chyra sighed wearily as the three continued bickering and shook her head muttering. "I really wish *I* was the one that wasn't going to have to put up with this any of shit for the next three to six months!"
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