Chapter 16 - Upgrades... Again?
#15 of Dusk to Dawn
Chapter 16 - Upgrades... Again
The next morning the four boys, awoke, showered and were eating breakfast when there was a knock at the door.
"It's Blake," Skye commented.
"Come on in Blake, door's open!" Alex shouted.
"I forgot, you guys always know who's as the door, eh?" Blake commented, smiling in Skye's direction, who grinned.
"What's up boss man?" Spencer greeted, Blake coming into the kitchen.
‘We're almost done outfitting the ships, a lot of new features." Blake grinned.
"That's not all he's here for," Skye smirked.
"Oh, yeah Mr. Telepathic, then what am I thinking now?" Blake chirped.
"That seems a little to harsh," Skye replied reading Blake's thoughts.
"Anyways, we need you guys to go get your armor upgraded, we got you some new parts," Blake countered.
"Why do we even need to wear them anyways?" Alex questioned, "I mean all we do is put holes in them, and our skins' plenty hard enough."
"Yeah, that's true, but these new penetrating bullets, can be a problem, so we've worked out a defensive mechanism that will stop them going thorough your armor." Blake said cheerfully.
"Really, what'd you do to them," Skye smirked.
"Since I know you've already read my mind I'll tell everyone else," Blake replied through clenched teeth.
"We've basically ‘grown' a layer of your scales into the material, once we joined your DNA with the suite; we were able to modify it to make it a lot harder, and lighter then your old suites." Blake explained.
"That actually sounds really cool," Alex spoke up, "It's like having our morph forms scales wrapped around us," he hugged himself for emphasis.
"You're such a kid," Skye replied, a grin on his face.
"You know you love it," Alex chastised.
"Yeah, well..." Skye gave Alex a quick peck on the lips, "Last one to the river goes in nude, it is Valentine's Day after all" Skye grinned, running towards the door.
"I guess I'll see you two later then," Blake countered.
"Yeah, well be back in about an hour," Alex shouted behind him.
‘Well I'm going to get back to the Shroud, I'll leave you two to rest up before we head out again." Blake said before turning around and leaving.
"You know what that means?" Evan smirked.
"No, what?" Spencer laughed standing up.
"I get you for the next hour!" Evan grinned, pouncing on Spencer; who actually nearly missed him. The two toppled backwards onto the couch.
"You're really, getting fast!" Spencer giggled, kissing Evan's cheek.
"I'm thinking this is going to be the best Valentine's day ever!" Evan grinned his perfectly flawless grin.
***
Skye leapt across a dead tree trunk that was laying on the ground, his speed keeping him just a few steps ahead of Alex.
"You really think you can out run me?" Skye shouted over his shoulder.
"I think I just did!" Alex countered, his morph forms baby blue scales sparkling with the sun reflecting off of the river.
"That's cheating," Skye retorted.
"If I recall, there weren't any rules stated, just last one to the river goes in nude!" Alex giggled.
Skye leapt into the air, arms outstretched towards Alex, a ball of white flames engulfing him for a spit second. He emerged on the other side in his white dragon form, tackled Alex into the river. The two sat up in the relatively warm water.
"Hey, no fair!" Alex pouted, smacking Skye with his blue wing.
"I'm not the one who morphed and flew in front of me to win the race though, am I." Skye rebutted, pushing Alex backwards with his arm.
"Okay, then let's go!" Alex grinned, proposing the challenge.
"All right, your on," Skye leapt on top of Alex; the two beginning to wrestle, in the water.
A few shoves later and Alex was crouched over Skye's body, holding his wrists and leaning on him enough he was pinned.
"Give up?" Alex asked, looking into Skye's Amber eyes.
"Not a chance babe," Skye flashed a toothy grin before he quickly thrust upwards, throwing Alex over on his back, as Skye pounced on top of him, pinning him the same way.
"Well I can see you like being on top then eh?" Alex smiled, before he leaned in, kissing Skye lightly on the lips.
The two dragons parted their lips slightly, allowing their serpent like tongues to roam each others mouths, tasting one another.
"Alex, Skye, can you hear me," Blake's voice echoed inside their heads.
"Yeah, we're just down by the water," Skye thought back.
"We've jus received a communication from one of our partner groups here on the planet, were going to go meet with them, they have something to show us." Blake explained, "Were you two busy?"
"Umm... no. we're on our way, we can meet Spencer and Evan along the way and it's to the north of the town right?" Skye replied.
"Roger, its approximately fifty kilometers north of the hotel you were staying in," Blake confirmed across the com channel.
"Okay, we're on the way," Skye informed, "Spencer, Evan be ready to move out when we get there," Skye's thoughts ordered.
"Fine, but you owe me Skye!" Spencer replied.
"Sorry to, ‘interrupt'," Skye said, as he and Alex took off, heading back for the hotel.
"We'll be ready for you when you get here," Evan replied, a hint of frustration in his thoughts.
"Sorry Evan, but that's how life is with the Black team, we get called on a moment's notice, and we have to go," Skye thought back to him.
"I know, I get it, it's just going to take some time to get used to this lifestyle change," Evan grumbled.
"I know for a fact that you're the one meant for Spencer, Evan; just have some faith." Skye comforted.
"Thanks Skye, I'm glad to have you as my ‘brother," he laughed.
"Everything okay?" Alex asked, from above Skye in their formation.
"Yeah, just coaching Evan a bit," Skye replied.
About four minutes later Skye and Alex's morph forms' shadows blocked the sun above where Spencer and Evan were standing, both already shifted into their dragon forms.
"Okay, let's get this over with, then maybe we can have time for a late dinner; with our luck," Spencer attempted to cheer Evan up.
"Sure," Evan grinned, "I think you're right Skye, and thanks for believing in me!" Evan thought to the white dragon above him.
"No worries bro," Skye returned the gesture.
The four dragons took off into the clouds to avoid drawing any unwanted attention as they flew. Evan was a lot faster than the others; for some reason he just was, not because he was trying, it just happened.
"Wow, you're really fast Evan," Alex commented.
"I don't know why, im not exactly racing you guys here, this feels slow to me," Evan replied.
"Maybe that's his special talent in his morph form," Skye wondered; "Speed."
"That'd be cool, we could really use your speed in some missions," Spencer grinned a goofy grin with his teeth.
"Stop it," Evan giggled, "You know that face annoys me!"
"Which is exactly why I'm doing it," Spencer laughed.
"Guys, the labs about another two minutes flight, where we get there we can just land in our morph forms, the techs know about us already." Skye instructed.
"Yes Sir!" the three other dragons replied.
"You guys know that I don't need any of that ‘Sir' crap, just tell me you understand," Skye countered, "We're family."
The few minutes that remained seemed to fly by, and the lab slowly came into view. It was about the size of a large mansion, and looked like one too except for the four large aquatic tanks behind the house, and what looked like an active volcano behind them.
"Wow, and we thought the military lab on Earth looked fancy," Alex recalled.
"Yeah, this is really an improvement eh?" Skye noted.
"All right, I guess we land on the helicopter pad?" Spencer joked, pointing to the massive helicopter pad behind the house, which was marked with four ‘x's.
"Well then let's take that as our invitation," Skye replied.
The four dragons touched down on the pad just as about twenty scientists and one man dressed in a suit walked onto the pad.
Several of the techs gazed upon the beasts with awe, studying them from a distance.
"Please excuse my technicians," the man began to speak, "They just haven't seen a morph form such as yours in a while."
"Excuse me but are you the scientist that called for us?" Spencer asked.
"Yep, that would be me," he shifted a bit on the concrete pad.
"Cornel Skye, Team Black," Skye saluted.
"At ease Skye, and please, morph back to your human forms, we need to get into the lab, we can explain what's happening as you get into your stations." The man replied.
The four of them morphed back into their human forms ‘sans clothes' and walked into the lab. Once inside the lab, they stood in awe looking at the massive glass tubes lining the walls, each with a picture of one of the Black teams' members on it.
"Why do those tanks have our names on them?" Skye asked.
"Because, we need to run some tests on your bodies and see what's changed with you guys since your first morph." One of the techs explained.
"We already know that you can bio morph but there is a morph form that is stronger than the regular anthro morph, that you guys use, without the need to merge together." The man continued.
"Okay, is this why we're here," Skye asked.
"Sure is, oh, by the way my name's Jason, I'm the guy whose heading this experiment," the man said.
"Okay, let's get this over with; we have plans for later tonight." Evan replied.
"Don't worry; this shouldn't take more then a few hours." Jason replied.
"Okay, then let's get it over with," Skye replied.
"Sure, thing, just strip down, and walk through the bio-screen," Jason pointed to a small doorway in the middle of the room, where an eerie green light was pulsing through it.
The four boys stripped off their clothes and walked through the decontamination field, then walked over to the surgical beds in the lab laying down.
"You could've at least warmed the beds up a bit for us," Spencer replied with a shiver as his bare back touched the table.
"Well it won't matter much once you're knocked out for the procedure, will it?" Jason responded.
"True, all right let's get this over with," Spencer replied.
"Okay, now just lay back and relax," the boys heard Jason's voice as the masks were placed over their nose and mouths.
A few seconds later all four of the boys were asleep, their subconscious connection linking their minds, in their dream like world.
"So do you think that this will work?" Alex's mind thought.
"Not sure, defiantly hoping it does, we could use all the help we can get with the battle between us and Joey getting more and more heated." Skye thought back.
"What's the worst that could happen, we get stronger right?" Evan asked.
"I'm hoping that's all the bad news scenario is," Spencer thought back.
"Well we should rest, we never do actually get a lot, this could do us good!" Evan thought, back; his thoughts going blank as he fell asleep.
"Good idea," Skye thought back, "Let's get some rest."
The four drifted off into a deep sleep, only stirring several hours later.
Alex groaned as he slowly woke up, his body feeling like it had been through a blender. "Skye you up yet?" he asked, still looking at the ceiling.
Skye groaned in response, "Yeah just woke up now," he replied.
The other two woke up a few seconds later, "Why are we still bound to the tables?" Evan asked.
"It was simply precaution," Jason replied, "So that any convulsions you experienced wouldn't cause you guys any un-necessary harm."
"Okay, can you release us now?" Spencer asked.
"You're still at risk for another half hour, just be patient it..." Jason was cut off when a loud alarm erupted from the room adjacent to them.
"Sir, several armed men have breached the perimeter, not sure what level the threat is," a man's voice echoed across the room.
"Send in the defense squads, and submerge the subject, they can breathe under water.