{"sf1_id":807758,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Showdown","author":"Volcan MacAingeal","words":23509,"posted_at":"2015-01-15T14:42:00.000Z","tags":["Death","Dragon","Dragoness","Human","Hurt/Comfort","Machine","Phoenix","Romance","Snow Leopard","Violence","combat","eastern"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/807758-showdown","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/807758","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=807758\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"\nThe Os-Nàdarra Sentinels\n \nChapter 5: Showdown\n \n            When the door to the base opened,\nAdrian was greeted by countless laser sights illuminating his body armour. He\nfroze instantly as he found so many firearms pointed at him, putting up his\nhands but cringing as his face burned from his earlier wound. He remained still\nas two of the guards approached him, and did not resist as they put their hands\non his shoulders and urged him forward.\n            Adrian was led through the base,\npast the laboratories where new bodies for the cyborgs were cloned, where\ncurrent bodies were being implanted with their new cybernetic body parts, and\nwhere empowered beings were experimented upon. Even as he was led past the last\nof the labs, he witnessed a pale feathered avian subjected to a strike by a\nguard's baton as he resisted being placed on an operating table.\n            The cat paused, looking at the pale\navian. The guards escorting him didn't force him to continue, instead following\nhis gaze to the avian. \"Something wrong, Commander One?\" One asked.\n            \"That avian in there,\" he remarked.\n\"I just noticed that he kind of looks like one of the freaks I was fighting\nbefore.\"\n            The guards glanced at each other,\nbut said nothing; Adrian could not see their faces behind their masks, so he\ncould not gauge their thoughts on his words. Shrugging it off he continued\nforward, glancing at the avian only once more just before he stepped out of\nsight of the laboratory window, continuing on his way up the hall without\nshowing any reaction to the screams of the subjects throughout the labs. \n            The trek through the next two\ncorridors was brief; they came to the primary lab, the personal workplace of\nDr. Rex, where he spent day and night on his cybernetic projects. The guards\nled him up to the door, and stopped. \"The Doctor wants to talk to you,\" one of\nthe guards said. \"And, afterwords, you might want to see the other doctor about your face.\" Several\nof the other guards snickered at the remark.\n            \"Shut your trap,\" Adrian retorted,\nbefore he stepped up to the door; it opened automatically with a hiss before\nsliding into the wall, clearing the way for the cat. He stepped through the\ndoor, hearing it close with a dull thunk behind him, before he searched the\nlarge room for any sign of the doctor.\n            He spotted the elderly human at the\nterminal across the room. Stepping cautiously, he approached Dr. Rex, keeping\nhis hands firmly against his sides and stopping a respectful distance from him.\nRex finished whatever notes he was taking before he saved the document and\nclosed it, turning his chair around to face Adrian, the wrinkly, pale-skinned,\nbalding face of Dr. Rex glaring back at him, but his face softened as he saw\nAdrian's face more clearly.\n            \"Quite the new battle scar,\nCommander One,\" he said.\n            \"Yes, so I keep hearing,\" returned\nAdrian. \"There's... been a problem.\"\n            \"You failed again,\" Rex stated,\nbluntly.\n            \"It was a trap, just like you warned\nus,\" explained Adrian. \"We found Volcan waiting for us at the airstrip; he\ndistracted us while his friends snuck around behind us and destroyed the\nDisruptors.\"\n            \"You didn't have someone watching\nthem?\" Rex demanded, shooting to his feet with surprising determination,\ndespite how difficult it was for a man of his age. \"You idiot; you knew he\nnever travels alone! He knew we were after him and he knew about the\ndisruptors; did you actually believe he would fall into that trap twice?!\"\n            \"I underestimated him,\" admitted\nAdrian. \"I am ready to face the consequences of my actions, but there is one\nother thing you must know.\"\n            \"It better be important,\" Rex\nwarned.\n            \"It's about Commander Two,\"\ncontinued Adrian. \"He betrayed us.\"\n            Rex's eyes widened as Adrian spoke\nthose words. \"What do you mean?\"\n            \"When Volcan and his friends had us\nsurrounded, the rest of us were ready to fight our way out. He dropped his\nweapon and surrendered, claiming he was finished with us -with the\norganization. He sided with Volcan and helped him take down the rest of our\nmen,\" explained Adrian. \"I have no doubt that to avoid prison time, he'll\nnegotiate with the authorities and reveal the location of our base to them.\nWe've been compromised.\"\n            Rex tapped his fingers against the\narm of his chair, considering the words of his fist commander; he did not find\nit as hard to believe as one might've thought, though; he always knew that\nCommander Two had been reluctant to follow orders to apprehend Empowered\nBeings. \"Unfortunate,\" he muttered. \"Darwinson was a talented soldier, but I\nguess I should have expected he couldn't stomach the necessities of our work\nforever.\"\n            \"Give me another team; another\nchance,\" pleaded Adrian. \"I'll find him, I'll kill him for his betrayal and\nfinally put an end to Skilerain and all of his group before they can cause any\nmore trouble for us or the innocent world.\"\n            \"No. It's too late for that,\"\nreturned Rex. \"By the time we mobilize another squad, the special forces will\nbe on their way here. I'm still a loose end my old superiors will want tied up,\nafter all.\" He turned away from Adrian. \"There's no more we can do now;\neliminating Darwinson and Skilerain will have to wait.\" He reached for his\ncane, picking it up in his hand and tapping it against the floor. \"Order the\nguards and science teams to prepare to evacuate the base; load all of the\nsubjects and equipment onto the tram. We're leaving.\"\n            \"Doctor, that'll take at least a half-day;\nwon't they be here by then?\" Adrian pointed out.\n            \"Leave that to me,\" stated Rex as he\nturned his gaze towards the far wall, where a great body of steel stood in the\nshadows. \"I'll buy us all the time we need... perhaps I may even be able to\ntake some of our enemies with us.\"\n \n            ~~~~~\n \n            \"The bastard slipped away?!\" Tsume\ndemanded, gawking with disbelief. \"Lighris, you and Pavan were supposed to be\nwatching them, and you let that braque fur ball get past you?!\"\n            \"Hey, I would have been watching\nthem if Pavan had shut his freaking pie hole for a few moments!\" Lighris\nretorted. \"The guy just would not shut up!\"\n            \"Hey, I get talkative when I'm\nexcited!\" Pavan said defensively. \"We just kicked their asses for crying out\nloud; who wouldn't be happy about it?\"\n            \"You get talkative every minute\nyou're breathing!\" Lighris yelled at Pavan. \n            The three exchanged harsh words for\na while; Volcan and the others stayed well out of the conversation, the fire\nphoenix stepping over to Kyle; he had wanted to talk to him for a while now,\nand thought now was the best time to do so. \"Well, Adrian getting away\ncertainly throws a monkey wrench into things,\" stated the phoenix. \"Suppose\nhe'll go to warn Rex?\"\n            \"Not a doubt in my mind,\" said Kyle,\nsighing as he took a puff off of a cigar in his mouth.\n            \"Hey, where'd you get that?\" Volcan\nasked, having not seen Kyle with the cigar before.\n            \"Your brother gave it to me,\" he\nreplied as he pulled the cigar from his mouth and exhaled a cloud of smoke from\nhis mouth. \"Needed a way to chill out; he suggested this. Never thought to try\nthem before but, thought today was a good time to try, now that I'm going to be\ngoing through a serious life adjustment,\" he sighed as he moved to take another\npuff. But then, he paused, and his expression slowly turned sour. \"Of course...\nI'll have plenty of time to do so in prison.\"\n            Volcan turned to him. \"Prison?\"\n            Kyle turned to him. \"Well yeah; the\ncourts are not exactly going to show leniency for my past actions are they?\" He\nsaid. \"I'm a U.S army deserter, I'm responsible for kidnappings, and I'm not\neven a Canadian citizen, so technically I'm across the border illegally right\nnow. I'm in deep shit no matter what, now.\"\n            \"He's right, Volcan,\" said a\nfamiliar voice; Volcan turned and looked over his shoulder, spotting a familiar\ndark blue hawk approaching the two of them.\n            \"Gregory,\" the phoenix greeted,\nnodding. \"Glad to see you back on your feet.\"\n            The hawk nodded back. \"Still have a\nbit of a limp, even though it's been over a week,\" he returned. \"Anyway,\nVolcan, he's correct; if he pleads guilty, no court will forgive him for his\ncrimes, even if he helps us find the I.T.O.U.E base.\"\n            \"But Greg, he gave himself up\nwillingly,\" reasoned Volcan. \"And he's willing to...\"\n            Gregory put up his hand. \"That isn't\ngoing to be enough to make up for what's he's done in the past,\" the hawk\nreturned. \"Not even giving up the I.T.O.U.E will clear him of charges; the best\nhe can hope for is ten years taken off, and that's if they're willing to be\nnice; he's still looking at five years, without parole. And before you ask,\nnone of your city favours will be enough to get him out of this.\"\n            Volcan frowned. \"So Kyle will go to\nprison no matter what I do?\"\n            \"I'm afraid so,\" stated Gregory.\n\"This side of the border, he's an international criminal. Across the border,\nhe'd be subject to the American laws against desertion, which, you may recall,\nis execution, since he deserted in war time while on duty in Iraq.\"\n            Volcan groaned. \"Great... he goes\nhome, he dies. He stays here, he has to sit around in a prison waiting for the\nI.T.O.U.E to come looking for him,\" grumbled the phoenix. \"Either way, he\nloses...\"\n            \"It's alright, Volc,\" assured Kyle.\n\"I doubt Rex will waste his time coming after me while I'm in prison, and\nbesides, I deserve to do my time after all the shit I've done the last seven\nyears of my life.\"\n            Volcan looked at Kyle sadly. \"You\nsure?\" He asked. \n            \"I don't really have a choice, do\nI?\" Kyle asked.\n            Gregory put a hand to his chin,\nthinking for a moment before he spoke again. \"Well, let's see...\" he began.\n\"There actually is a way out for him regarding the kidnappings.\"\n            Volcan looked at Greg quizzically. \"What\ndo you mean?\" He asked. \n            Gregory turned to Kyle. \"How many of\nthe kidnappings you were part of actually take place here in Canada?\"\n            \"Three,\" replied Kyle.\n            \"Were you actually seen doing any of\nthem?\" Gregory asked.\n            \"Well no; I always had my mask on,\"\nreplied Kyle, before he perked with realization. \"Wait, you're not seriously\nsuggesting I deny involvement.\"\n            \"That wouldn't work,\" replied\nGregory. \"But since it was only three, and three you weren't actually seen\ndoing, that may help reduce your sentence. I can make a few calls; get some\npast favors seen through. I can't keep you out of jail entirely; no amount of\ninfluence I have will assist with that. At best, I may be able to get you\nparole, but I can do nothing to keep you out.\"\n            Kyle nodded. \"I'm willing to accept\nthat, believe me,\" he assured. \"I'm ready to face justice... it's long\noverdue.\"\n            Volcan, as much as he wanted to\ncontinue to debate the issue, didn't press it any further. Kyle had made up his\nmind, and the phoenix was willing to accept his decision, despite how it made\nhim feel. He watched as Kyle's gaze drifted off, seeing his eyes lock on\nsomething. Curious, Volcan followed where he was looking and saw the object of\nhis stare.\n            He was looking at Vinge, who was\ntalking to Yurui at that moment.\n            \"Kyle, something wrong?\" Volcan\ninquired.\n            \"Your buddy Vinge,\" he said. \"Now\nthat I take a look at him, he resembles someone I've seen before.\"\n            \"Who?\" Volcan asked.\n            \"I don't know, but there's a\nwhite-feathered avian at the base who I swear looks just like him,\" stated Kyle.\n            Volcan and Gregory both reacted to\nthis, their eyes fixing on Kyle with looks of awe as the meaning of his words\nset in; the two shared a glance with each other before looking back at Kyle\nagain. \"An ice phoenix?\" Volcan asked.\n            \"I don't know for sure, but if he's\nin there it's because he's an em...\" the man paused, and corrected himself; \"a\nsuperhumanoid, if nothing else.\"\n            Vinge had caught part of the\nconversation; he froze mid-sentence of his chat with Yurui and looked over his\nshoulder towards Kyle, the expression on his face a mix of horror and\ndisbelief. In seconds Vinge was making a beeline right for Kyle, reaching him\nin a mere five steps before seizing the African American human by his collar\nand bringing him eye to eye with him. Kyle froze in Vinge's grasp, and in the\nfierce, ice blue eyes of the ice phoenix, he saw years of suppressed anger and\nterror alike boiling over, finding its way to the surface to mix with his\nvoice.\n            \"His name; did you ever hear his\nname?!\" Vinge demanded.\n            \"Vinge, calm down!\" Volcan urged,\ngrabbing his friend by his shoulders to try and pull him off of Kyle.\n            Vinge elbowed Volcan directly in the\nface, his limb lashing out like a cobra and striking the fire phoenix square in\nthe forehead; Volcan went cross-eyed, dazed by the impact of Vinge's arm. The Ice\nPhoenixes' eyes never left Kyle even as he sent Volcan falling onto his\nbackside.\n            \"Who is he?!\" Vinge screamed in\nKyle's face.\n            \"I don't know!\" Kyle returned,\nputting up his hands defensively. \"I never heard his name but he's been there\nsince before I joined the I.T.O.U.E! I don't know anything else!\"\n            \"What about his eyes? Are they\naqua-green with light purple in the sockets? Did you see...?!\" \nVinge was interrupted by Volcan grabbing him again,\nthis time the Fire Phoenix successfully pulling Vinge off of Kyle, before he\nseized Vinge in a headlock, holding him with a powerful grip. Vinge struggled,\nreleasing Kyle and grabbing at Volcan's arm with one hand, elbowing Volcan in\nthe stomach repeatedly with his other arm, but the fire phoenix never released\nhim.\n\"Vinge,\" Volcan growled in his friend's ear. \"Calm.\nThe fuck. Down.\" He practically commanded, a tone of warning present in his\nvoice.\nVinge stopped, immediately his actions dawning on\nhim. Slowly, he looked around, taking in his surroundings. His eye found\nVolcan's first, peering back at him from the side; the look in that eye showed\na sense of unfamiliarity, as if Volcan did not recognize the ice phoenix in his\ncurrent state. He turned his gaze to Kyle, who was standing with his hands held\nup ready for another attack, and lastly to Gregory; the blue hawk had drawn his\ntazer, the laser sight on the non-lethal weapon already aimed directly at Vinge's\nchest.\nHe continued to look around; past Volcan, he saw\nRikyuu, Obsidian and Ayane, all of them staring at him with looks of\nbewilderment. To the other side, he saw Lighris, Pavan and Tsume; their faces\nwere expressionless, but Lighris was standing as if ready to intercept Vinge if\nhe were to lose his temper again...\nHe also saw Yurui; the horrified look on her face\nstung his heart... the girl who had saved his life earlier was now eyeing him\nas if he were some kind of monster.\nVinge relaxed, releasing a breath he didn't know he\nwas holding before taking a deeper breath and mentally commanding his muscles\nto ease. The tension slowly drained from his body, and when Volcan felt the ice\nphoenix exhale and his muscles lose their tightened state, he carefully removed\nhis arm from Vinge's neck, letting the ice phoenix stand on his own. \nVinge stood panting for a moment, gathering his\nthoughts. Gregory lowered his tazer, both Kyle and Lighris returned to standing\nnormally. Finally, Vinge turned to Volcan, their gazes meeting for a moment\nbefore he looked back at Kyle.\n\"I'm sorry,\" he said, his face contorting with pain.\n\"I'm sorry...\"\nKyle nodded to him. \"I understand,\" he said,\nsolemnly to Vinge, before he turned to Gregory. \"For the record; I don't want\nto press any charges.\" The police chief answered him with a nod, agreeing to\nlet it slide. Kyle walked up to the police chief, speaking softly to him. \"It's\nhis dad, isn't it?\"\nGregory nodded. \"Yes... he was kidnapped by the\nI.T.O.U.E ten years ago.\"\n\"And we're going to get him back,\" stated Volcan,\nturning his gaze towards the south. \"It's been a long time coming, and we're\ngoing to make it happen.\"\nKyle turned to the phoenix. \"Volcan, I already told\nyou; that base is a fortress, with fifty heavily-armed guards and active\ndisruptors that'll cut your powers completely. You'd never get in there without\nthe help of the army Special Forces, not to mention you can't go across the\nborder.\"\n\"Greg,\" said Volcan. \"You have enough evidence to\ntell the Americans to get their asses in gear?\"\n\"With Kyle's testimony, it'll be enough,\" replied\nGregory.\n\"Good,\" said Volcan. \"Then it's time to make some\ncalls. Like Kyle said, my team and I can't cross the border, so we have to\nleave this one to them.\"\n \n~~~~~\n \n            Fourteen\nhours later...\n            In the small hours of the morning, Captain Oliver Ford of the American\nGreen Berets ordered his men to secure the landing zone as he slid down the\nzipline from the helicopter, airdropping them approximately half a mile from\ntheir target area; from there, they were to go in on foot, following\ncoordinates provided for them by General Robertson, which he had received from\nthe defector, currently under Canadian protection and confidentiality, locate\nthe entrance to the base, make entry and eliminate all hostiles. The Montana\nNational Guard had already assembled and quarantined the area, setting up a\nmile-wide perimeter with air support and armour divisions enroute to assist\nthem.\n            Ford and his team, now inside the quarantine,\nsix operatives total, were all accounted for, and confirmed the area clear. \"Okay\nboys; listen up,\" Ford began them. \"Target is four hundred meters north\nnorth-east just before the Canadian border. Johnson, you're on six; watch our\nbacks. Zane, Mack, find some high ground; monitor traffic, and cover our\napproach and give us an eye on things. Izzy, Eddy, you two are in middle; watch\nour flanks. I'll take point. Let's find this place.\"\n            \"Yes sir,\" the men returned.\n            \"Move out,\" Ford commanded,\nelevating his M4A1 to a ready position as the men split into two groups. \nThe sniper team sprinted away to locate a good point\nto provide long range support, while the other three formed up with Ford. Izzy\nand Eddy, both male anthropomorphic cats -brothers in fact, sharing a gray\ncolor to their fur, carried M4's like his own, while Johnson, a male Caucasian\nhuman, carried a pump-action shotgun, and each was fitted with appropriate\ntactical gear for infiltration, including cutting torches, multi tools, breaching\ncharges and hand grenades. The sniper team consisted of a brown avian and a\nblack wolf; Zack made a good spotter, thanks to his telescopic vision, barring\nthe need to carry binoculars.\nIt took only a short time for them to reach the\ntarget; the land around them was fairly open, giving them a wide visual range.\nFord wondered how there were any hidden bases out in this part of Montana; the\nland was unsuitable for such a thing, and anything this close to the border\nwould be spotted by the patrols of both countries. There were no rivers or mountains\nor any sort of landmarks that truly separated Canada and the United States;\nnowhere they a base could be safely established. He wondered if perhaps the\nintelligence was faulted, or a lie.\nHis thoughts were interrupted by a transmission\ncoming through his radio. \"Charlie-101;\nthis is Sierra-2, holding at on high ground on your nine. We've surveyed the\narea; we do not see any buildings or signs of activity out there.\"\n\"Copy that Sierra-2; keep us posted,\" returned Ford.\n\"Captain, we're almost to the target site and\nthere's nothing out here,\" stated Eddy. \"Look around; no buildings, no caves,\nno campsites.\"\n\"Yeah; this place is just crawling with evil,\" Johnson said, sarcastically. \"Those Canadians\nhad faulty intelligence; this is just wilderness.\"\nFord grunted in displeasure; it sure seemed like\nthere was nothing around. Nothing they could see, at least. Scratching the\nunderside of his canine muzzle, he turned to the others. \"Let's fan out; search\nthe area for doors leading into the ground. Regroup in fifteen,\" he instructed.\n\"Stay within fifty meters of each other; don't stray off.\"\n\"On it, Captain,\" Izzy returned, diligently; never\none to complain, even when something appeared to be a waste of time, unlike his\nbrother.\nThe four commandoes spread out, seeking any sign of\nhabitation in the area that could be the enemy base. Ford searched the ground\nwith his eyes, looking for handles to trapdoors, fake rocks with scanners built\nin, or anything one might expect for a hidden base out in the open like this.\nAfter several minutes though, he found nothing out of the ordinary; no matter\nhow many times he looked, everything just looked like ordinary ground to him.\nJust as he was about to give up though, turning on\nhis foot and taking a step back towards his group, his foot seemed to fall\nfurther than it should have, and landed on something flat and hard -much harder\nthan dirt and too smooth to be rock. He looked down, following his leg to where\nhis foot was, and saw the grass around his boot seemed... different. It was\nshiny -not like grass covered in morning due, but like plastic grass, and when\nhe brushed his foot across it, the grass remained bent, but not in a way grass\nshould...\nSlinging his M4A1 over his shoulder, the Green Beret\nknelt down, feeling over the ground with his paw; the grass felt like plastic\n-artificial grass, like the kind used as props for movie sets or stage\nperformances. Curious, he pushed his finger into the dirt to feel a fuzzy,\ntangled material, but not actual soil. Pushing further, twisting his finger\nabout to worm his way through the material, he pushed almost up to his wrist,\nuntil his hand eventually touched something hard and cold as metal.\n\"Pretty sneaky,\" he muttered, before turning to his\nradio, holding the transmit button as he spoke into it. \"Squad; I think I found\nsomething here. Fall in on me, stat.\"\n\"Coming to\nyou, sir.\"\n\"Sierra-2\nhere, requesting update.\"\n\"Standby,\" Ford returned. \nThe rest of his squad arrived momentarily; he stayed\nby the spot of artificial grass waiting for them, and when they arrived, he was\nquick to show them what he'd found. Izzy knelt down by his captain's side,\nchecking the patch of grass as Ford had, and nodded in confirmation.\n\"Definitely something under here; maybe a hatch,\" he said.\n\"How big do you think it is?\"\n\"Let's find out,\" suggested Eddy.\nFord agreed, and stepped onto the fake grass,\nfeeling it with his hand as he walked across it, half-crouched, until he felt\nreal grass again. The others followed his example, Izzy staying by the side\nthat Ford had been. Shortly, they found an exact diameter of the hidden door;\nit was much bigger than they initially expected, easily twenty meters across\nand almost double that in width, the entire thing perfectly camouflaged with\nthe artificial soil and grass. Until autumn, when the real grass around the\ndoor would begin to wither, it'd be otherwise impossible to tell that this\nlarge door was even here.\n\"Man this thing is huge,\" Johnson remarked, having\nto use the radio because the group was so far apart.\n\"Whoever built this sure went to a lot of trouble to\nhide it; I say, this is definitely our target,\" said Izzy.\n\"Point to Izzy; master of the obvious,\" remarked\nEddy. \"So how do we get in? The breaching charges we brought with us won't even\nmake a dent in a door this big, even if we could find a seam under all this\njunk.\"\n\"We'll have to call in an airstrike; maybe a\nwell-placed missile could...\" \nFord was unable to finish his sentence before the\nground suddenly began to shake. Not a violent shake, but enough of a tremor\nthat he could feel it through his boots, and the squeal of metal on metal\nfilled the air, muffled as though heard through a wall. It was then he noticed,\nthe hidden hatch was starting to move; the ground halfway across the fake grass\nwas splitting open in a perfectly straight line, as if being cut by a surgeon's\nscalpel.\n\"Everyone, get away from the hatch!\" Ford shouted\ninto the radio, immediately scrambling away from the hatch as the opening grew\nwider.\nIt would soon become apparent that the hole wasn't\nvery deep; when it opened, Ford could see all the way to the bottom, but\nsomething was rising out of it. The glow and fire of rocket-propelled engines\ncould be seen in the dark, and a great behemoth began to emerge. When it\ncleared the edges of the hatches, it cast a shadow in the moonlight, utterly\neclipsing Ford in blackness, the shadow becoming larger still as a large pair\nof gossamer, bat-like wings of an unknown material but clearly not flesh, due\nto the lack of any veins present in the wings, extended from its sides.\nAs Ford's eyes adjusted to the dark, he studied the\nbody of the creature; it looked like a feral wyvern, but its entire body was\ncomposed of metal, not armour-like scales as wyverns were known for. Its eyes\nwere the colour of the sky; a bright blue, and the metal plates on its body\nwere perfectly articulated, leaving no exposed wiring or circuitry anywhere\nthat Ford could see. The tail looked the most deadly, ending in a tip shaped\nlike a cross-spear; a long blade aimed vertically, with two long, thin spikes\nprotruding from the tip below where the sword-like end was linked to the\narmour.\n\"Holy shit!\" Sierra\nTwo called over the radio. \"What the fuck\nis that?!\"\nAt the break of radio silence, the wyvern machine\nturned its head towards the hill where the sniper team was camped. It stood\nthere, staring off in that direction for a moment, until its lower jaw dropped\nopen, and a long, tubular gun barrel emerged from the throat of the mechanical\ncreature.\nFord brought up his radio quickly. \"Sierra's, take\ncover, now! Take...!\"\nBZZZZAAAM!\nThe distinctly electronic-sounding weapon fired; a\nred beam cut across the sky faster than sound, and with a sweep of the\nmechanical wyvern's head, it cut across the hilltop. The entire mound lit up\nwith heat, sparks flying everywhere and a white glow filling the air as the top\nof the hill was utterly destroyed. Ford's mouth fell agape as he watched the\ndemonstration of firepower by the machine; technology he didn't even knew\nexisted, had just destroyed a hilltop right before his eyes.\nAnd no doubt his sniper team.\n\"Weapons free; fire at will!\" Ford barked into his\nradio, flicking off the safety of his M4A1 and aiming it at the fake wyvern,\nunloading a whole clip of armour-piercing ammunition into the metal hide of the\nmechanized menace.\nSparks erupted from multiple spots on the creature, showing\nwhere Ford and his men emptied their guns into its horrible body, but no signs\nof any real damage appeared. The wyvern glanced at each of them briefly before\nopening its wings, fire erupting from its taloned feet, below the soles, and it\nbegan to steadily rise into the sky. Ford changed targets, trying to shoot out\nthe thrusters, but he couldn't tell if his rounds landed or not, so instead he\naimed for one of the wings.\nHis gun clicked; empty! Cursing in frustration, he\nejected the empty magazine, slapping in another one and trying his shot again,\nbut the wyvern was already too high and far for an accurate shot, and had\nangled itself forward, flying off towards the west before banking right,\nheading north towards the Canadian border...\n \n~~~~~\n \nVolcan awoke to his phone ringing; he groaned and\ntried to ignore it, pushing his head into his pillar and pulling his blanket\nover his head, but it persisted, and continued to draw him further away from a\nvery restful sleep. Resisting the urge to just smash the phone under his fist\nand hitting the speaker button. \"This better be important,\" he grumbled,\nsleepily\n\"WAKE UP YOU\nFUCK!!!!\"\nVolcan jumped as the loud voice and burst of static\npierced the silence of his bedroom, squawking in surprise before he tumbled off\nof his bed, hitting the floor noisily, tangled in his blankets. Now wide awake\n-more out of shock than anything else, he pushed himself up on his hands and\nshook his head to clear it. No mistaking\nthat voice, he thought, feeling a little cranky as he reached over and\npicked up the phone, looking at the I.D on the screen. \nYep; Lighris. \"Good morning to you too, bro,\" said\nVolcan, still half-asleep. \n\"Volcan; get\nyour ass up and get out of your apartment, now!\" Lighris barked.\nOut of... what? \"Why; what is it?\" He asked.\n\"There's a\nfucking robotic wyvern flying over the city, attacking the American half and\nheading towards the Canadian side,\" Lighris explained, quickly. \"I don't know why but I have a feeling that\nit's one of Rex's machines, which means he may be coming your way! Now get out,\nhurry!\"\nVolcan, suddenly fully awake, pushed himself to his\nfeet. Lighris wasn't one to make up stories, so if he said there was some big\nmechanical monster flying over the city, then there was at least something out\nthere. Finding a pair of pants and pulling them on, just for the sake of\ndecency, he grabbed his sword and morphing polearm, and sprinted out of his\nroom, banging on the guest room door with his fist. \"Vinge, wake up!\" He\nbarked.\nSeconds passed, and the door opened, a\nsleepy-looking Vinge meeting him from behind the door. \"What's wrong?\" He\nasked, somewhat cranky.\n\"It's the I.T.O.U.E; they're back already,\" returned\nVolcan. \"My brother just called me, saying some sort of mechanical wyvern is\ncoming this way!\"\nThat did it; Vinge ducked back into his room, going\nfor his sword; it occurred to Volcan that their weapons might not do much\nagainst a mech like the one Lighris had described, but if nothing else, both\nphoenixes probably just felt better having their blades, even if they could not\nuse them against their upcoming opponent. \nArmed and ready, the two phoenixes sprinted through\nthe apartment, heading for the balcony. On their way, it occurred to Volcan\nthat Tsume likely didn't know what was going on; he held up his staff and\nbanged it against the ceiling above him -a little too hard at first, causing\nhim to leave a hole in it. \n\"Ah crap; there goes some of my damage deposit,\" he\ngrumbled, but was certain he'd sent the intended message.\nAs Volcan pulled open his balcony door and leapt\noutside, he spread his wings and took off into the air, with Vinge following\nclosely. He heard Tsume's balcony door open and heard her shout after him;\ncircling around, he flew back over to her balcony. She was wearing only a\nbathrobe at the moment, apparently having only gotten out of bed herself, as\nshe came out of the house.\n\"Volcan, what was that banging about?\" Tsume asked.\n\"We got trouble in the city,\" Volcan replied.\n\"Sounds big; get dressed and gear up, we're going to need you.\"\nTsume rolled her eyes. \"No time for coffee, of\ncourse,\" she grumbled before running back into her apartment.\nThe two waited for the Earth Phoenix. Vinge looked\nover at Volcan as they hovered there, beating their wings heavily in order to\nstay airborne and in place. \"You think the I.T.O.U.E is really behind that\nmechanical wyvern?\"\n\"Can't be anyone else; Rex must've still had one ace\nup his sleeve to play if things didn't go in his favor,\" said Volcan.\nVinge nodded in agreement. \"It appears to be the\nmost likely scenario,\" he said. \"I doubt that taking down the wyvern will\neliminate the threat of their presence, but we have to destroy it before it\ndestroys the city.\"\n\"Damn straight,\" agreed Volcan.\nTsume appeared a short time later, armed with her\nknives and katars and wearing a blue tanktop and white Capri's. \"Catch me!\" She\ncalled abruptly as she leapt off the balcony towards Volcan and Vinge.\nCompletely caught off guard by her stunt, the two\navians reached out and barely caught her by the arms, saving her from a very\npainful fall. \"Are you freakin' crazy?\" Volcan scolded.\n\"Of course I am,\" she returned as they carried her\ndown to the ground, grinning smugly at both of them.\nVinge looked at Volcan in exasperation as they set\ndown the Earth Phoenix and landing themselves. Volcan could only shrug back\nhelplessly; Tsume had her moments of being random, obnoxious or even downright\nreckless, but to her it was all for the thrill of it. Unlike her sisters, Tsume\nwas always looking for adventure, while her siblings sought only dates,\nupper-class parties and their next shopping spree, but Tsume listed those as a\nsecond priority... if they were even to be bothered with at all.\n\"Well come on!\" Tsume called, sprinting towards a\nnearby patch of ground. \"Let's get moving!\"\n\"Hey, wait up; you don't even know where we're\ngoing!\" Volcan called as both he and Vinge followed after her.\n \n~~~~~\n \nBrent had been up bright and early that morning; a\nrare thing for him, but in his excitement, he had barely been able to sleep at\nall last night, spending most of his night dreaming about the project he had\nnearly completed; it was almost ready! Nobody could ever say he didn't do his\npart to contribute to the team whenever danger found them after today; with\nthis new project finished, he'd be the team's biggest guns... literally. \nAs he tinkered away at the distinctively\nhumanoid-shaped machinery half-covered by a tarp, he heard his radio buzz as\nthe rock music he'd been playing was cut off. His ears twitched and he glared\nover his shoulder at the radio, at first wondering if it had short-circuited,\nuntil he heard the broadcast.\n\"We interrupt\nyour regularly scheduled radio station to bring you this important news\nbulletin,\" the anchorman that had seized the broadcast announced. \"The city of Unity Falls has been placed\nunder a state of emergency as a strange, mechanical monster resembling a feral\nWyvern has appeared seemingly from nowhere, and is now circling above A-Plaza.\nThe National Guard is already on scene and has engaged the unusual bogey but we\nstrongly urge all residents to begin evacuating and to stay away from A-Plaza\nuntil the unknown enemy has been dealt with.\"\nSpurred by what his ears had caught, Brent sprinted\nacross his workshop to the dirty, dusty television on his workbench; he\nswitched it on and hurriedly switched it to the news channels, switching\nbetween them until he found one that gave a live feed of what was happening in\nUnity Falls. His jaw fell open as he saw the mechanical creature flying over\nthe city, barely getting a glimpse of it because of how fast it was flying. He\ncould clearly hear the sound of machine guns, seeing them ping off of the\narmour plates of the wyvern's hide. \nArtificial or\nnot, actually rather true to the real thing; Wyverns were known for having very\nhard skin,\nBrent thought, but quickly shook his head and gave himself a mental slap on the\ncheek. \"What the hell am I doing?! I'm sitting here complimenting it when it's\nattacking my hometown!\"\nHe looked over his shoulder at the blanketed object\nhe had been working on, and put a hand to his chin in thought. Was it ready?\nAnd would it do any good against the wyvern? The military had much better\nhardware than anything Brent could ever have access to and even they were\nhelpless to stop it... but if he just sat here doing nothing, after spending so\nmuch time working on this project, he really was a coward.\n            Brent turned, heading for the door;\nhe slapped the button to open the workshop's large sliding door before he ran\noutside, heading over to his truck -a dark blue Chevrolet Silverado, and jumped\ninto the driver's seat, starting it and backing it up into the workshop,\nparking the truck as close to the tarp-covered object as he could before he got\nout and ran up to it, pulling the tarp free to reveal what it was covering.\n            Below the tarp was a large metal\nbody, shaped almost like a humanoid, but covered in lusterless metal plates. It\nhad something of a blocky appearance, and between the plates, several hydraulic\nservos and metal joints could be seen in the legs and arms. The head of the\narmour closely resembled a canine's head, with two windowed eye slits and a\nvent for breathing. The front of the strange suit was open, revealing a small,\ncramped compartment that looked barely large enough for the hyena to fit in,\nand on the back of the armour where the pilot's back would rest, a layer of\npadded leather was nailed into the metal, similar padding inside of the helmet,\nand the fingers of the left arm, though perhaps a little vulnerable, looked\ndextrous enough, consisting of a long black glove the metal plates were nailed\nto. However, the other arm ended not in a hand like the left, but in a Light\nMachine Gun with an attached box magazine, carrying more than three hundred\nrounds.\n            \"The RCMP would put me away for half\nmy life if they ever caught me with this thing,\" muttered Brent, grimacing at\nthe gun as he removed the box magazine, replacing it with a different one\nmarked 'AP' on the side.\nFully automatic weapons, especially military-grade\nLMG's, were highly prohibited and illegal in Canada; to even own one or be in\npossession of one without a military permit was a ten year prison sentence. The\nRCMP did not fool around when it came to firearms control in Canada, but\nfortunately for Brent, even they couldn't collect all of the weapons left\nbehind by the gangs from the gang war. Brent had helped himself to some of the\nscraps they had missed, including this gun.\nBringing over a small stepping stool, he carefully\nplaced one leg into the suit, finding his footing before lowering himself in,\nand inserting his legs and arms into the compartments of the suit's limbs,\nfitting them into the sockets where he'd use his own limbs to steer the armour.\nHe rested his back against the padding behind him, and lifted his own head into\nthat of the armour. He pulled his right arm back out to flick a switch by his\nhip before he put his arm back into its place, and the front of the armour\nslammed shut noisily, as loud as a hammer hitting an anvil; the noise was\namplified in the enclosed space of the suit, making Brent cringe and his ears\nring for a moment.\n\"Note to self... next suit, more moving parts for\ncompartment door,\" he muttered, and began to test the suit.\nIt was hard to move, but not impossible, even for\nhim; with the expertly designed servo components he'd salvaged from the\nI.T.O.U.E cyborg, he had successfully developed limbs that moved with little to\nno effort, and the hydraulics supported the weight of the armour and himself as\nhe leaned forward and stood up, hobbling a little but barely managing to keep\nhis balance.\n\"Oh yeah, this is real smart; I'm taking this thing\nfor its first battle and I still haven't even tested it,\" he said. \"Damn, this\nthing's heavy... mother of mercy take pity on me if I fall over in this fuckin'\nthing.\" He turned towards his truck, carefully approaching. \"Okay... baby steps\nBrent; baby steps. You can make it... \" He looked at the lowered tailgate. \"...No I\ncan't; that's too high to lift my leg. But maybe...\"\nSlowly, he turned around; with his back to the box\nof the truck, he got as close as possible, and counted to three, giving a\nlittle hop towards the truck and letting himself fall back. Only half of the armour\nwent in, however; the legs stull hung over the tailgate. With some more effort,\nBrent managed to shove the armour into the box enough to be secured. He hit the\nrelease, and the armour front opened; carefully, he climbed out of the armour,\nand after tying it down with some straps and covering it with a tarp, he\nhurried out of the box and up to the cab.\n\"Alright, time to roll! Hang on guys; I'm coming!\"\n \n~~~~~\n(Play 'Goliath' by Immediate Music)\n \nThe American half of Unity Falls was in utter chaos\nas the cybernetic wyvern rampaged across its skies, picking out seemingly\nrandom targets in the streets, in buildings or among the soldiers, and\nseemingly ignoring the rest completely, despite the national guard shooting at\nit. No one who fell under its gaze and faced the power of its laser weapon\nsurvived as its attack carried on, and the collateral damage it left was\ntremendous; entire chunks of buildings were destroyed, and numerous civilians\nwere not spared its attack either.\nVolcan, Vinge and Tsume had arrived on the scene,\njust a few blocks from where the wyvern was; the two fliers landed on a\nbuilding to observe it, and Tsume appeared atop a moment later after using a\nchunk of earth to levitate herself up, standing beside the two male phoenixes,\nlooks of horror finding their way onto their faces as they saw the destruction\nthe metal wyvern caused.\n\"If I wasn't seeing it, I wouldn't believe it,\" said\nTsume, gazing in awe at the monstrosity. \"It's like something out of a Sci-Fi\nHorror movie.\"\n\"I wish this were only a movie,\" admitted Volcan.\nVinge peered over his shoulder. \"Maybe the air force\nwill have better luck,\" he said, pointing off the west, where two F-22 fighter\nplanes were approaching the city, swiftly.\n\"Yeah! Those should be too fast for it to hit!\"\nVolcan exclaimed confidently.\n\"We'll soon see,\" replied Vinge as the two planes\nmade ready to fire their payload.\nMissiles launched from the underbellies of the\nfighter jets, leaving behind streams of white exhaust as they soared towards\nthe mechanical wyvern, which immediately began to fly away, the propulsion\nengines on the bottoms of its feet giving it impressive speed, but nowhere near\nenough to outrun a pair of sidewinders; it went higher, and dove, gaining a\nlittle distance, but the missiles were locked and closing in fast.\nBut then, compartments in the sides of its legs\nopened up, and flares erupted from the openings, fooling the heat-seeking\ntechnology of the missiles and sending them careening off course, where they\nflew off in the distance or fell to the city below, causing more damage to the\nnearby buildings as it crashed into the side of a skyscraper, showering smaller\nstructures with debris.\nThe cyber wyvern turned about, as the fighter planes\nsoared past, getting them in its sights before firing its laser weapon, in a\nnarrower beam than previously, at the closer of the two planes. It missed, but\nbegan to arc towards him as the wyvern continued discharging it; the pilot\nsteered his plane away, banding under the laser to evade it, before performing\na somersault to go back and face the wyvern again, firing another missile at\nit.\nThe wyvern could not evade this time; the missile\nscored a direct hit to its chest, causing the cyber wyvern to slow as it angled\nback from the force of the blast. However, with the help of some more engines\non its back, it managed to keep its aerial balance and keep flying. Worst of\nall, the damage to its chest, though visible, was not as extensive as the\navians watching the unfolding battle expected -the metal was cracked and burnt,\nbut not breached.\nThe wyvern aimed its weapon again; this time when it\nfired, it scored a direct hit on the F-22, immediately shearing off the plane's\nleft wing and part of its tail, sending it spiralling out of control towards\nthe city below; it crashed into the streets, skidding to a halt on the pavement\nbetween a pair of cars. The second plane was making its own attack run, only\nfor the wyvern to unveil another surprise; a pair of compartments opened up in\nits shoulders, and four missiles erupted from the openings, soaring through the\nair and homing in on the F-22 before it could gain some distance, destroying it\nutterly.\n\"Crap...\" growled Volcan. \"So much for being too fast\nto be hit; that thing must have state-of-the-art targeting systems to hit two\nfighter planes like that.\"\n\"Forget that; did you see what happened? The thing\ntook a direct hit from a sidewinder and it hardly took any damage,\" Tsume\npointed out.\"\n\"Yeah I saw; geez, what's that thing made of, titanium?\"\nVolcan asked in disbelief.\n\"Based on the luster of that metal, I'd say it's adamantite,\"\nreplied Vinge.\n\"Ada-whatsit?\" Tsume asked. \n\"Adamantite; a very unique alloy metal, just as\ntough as Titanium, but heavier and not quite as expensive,\" explained Vinge.\n\"It's made using specially refined steel, mixed in with diamond dust, giving\nthe metal the durability of diamonds and the pliability of steel; it's even\nrumoured it has reflective properties against lasers, although such a thing has\nnever been tested since -until now- laser weapon technology was only\nfictional.\"\n\"I've heard of that metal,\" agreed Volcan. \"Has a\nlot of specifications to make it; very easy to screw up, from what I've heard.\nBut if it's so tricky why use so much of it?\"\n\"Far easier to procure than titanium; steel and\ndiamonds are cheaper and not as rare, while titanium is very hard to find, let\nalone enough to make something that size,\" replied Vinge. \"I may be heavier and\nharder to work with but it's that or spend a fortune getting your hands on an\neven rarer metal.\"\nVolcan nodded. \"So... is it conductive? Maybe I can\nmelt through it.\"\n\"All metals can be refined, even adamantite,\"\nreplied Vinge. \"If you can get close enough you can probably melt your way in,\nbut if memory serves, it's got a pretty high melting point, so you're going to\nneed a diversion.\"\n\"What about the civilians around here?\" Tsume asked.\n\"We'll have to leave them for the National Guard to\nhandle; we have to focus on taking that thing down, and fast,\" Volcan stated\nfirmly.\n\"Right,\" agreed Vinge.\n\"Hey!\"\nThe three turned, and saw Rikyuu flying towards\nthem, accompanied by Ayane in her power armour once again. The two landed on\nthe roof across from the phoenixes, and strode up to them. \"Glad to see you\nhere,\" Rikyuu said.\n\"Like I'd miss out on this,\" returned Volcan. \n\"Yo! Am I late to the party?\" The group turned just\nin time to see Pavan somersaulting towards them, accompanied by Lighris. Pavan\nlooked fresh out of bed himself, still in a pair of sweat pants, but Lighris\nwas fully clothed and everything; clearly having been up for a while.\n\"Glad you two could make it,\" said Volcan.\nLighris scoffed. \"I'm not letting that machine trash\nmy hometown.\"\nVolcan turned to Rikyuu. \"Where are 'Sid and Yurui?\"\n\"They're working with the National Guard to try and\nget the civilians away from here,\" replied Rikyuu. \"But that cybernetic\nmonster's been attacking random people.\"\n\"I'm not so sure it is random,\" replied Vinge,\nbarely audible over more tank and machine gun fire on the wyvern.\n\"What do you mean?\" Ayane asked.\n\"The I.T.O.U.E targets super humanoids; it occurred\nto me the other day maybe they have some means of identifying them on sight,\"\nexplained Vinge. \"I discussed with Kyle, and apparently they have scanning\nequipment that can identify them instantly by detecting certain differences in\ntheir genetic code, brain waves and sometimes even physique, depending on the\nperson. This wyvern is definitely built by the I.T.O.U.E, so maybe the people\nit's targeting are more super humanoids; in a city this large, a fair abundance\nof them can be found.\"\n\"You know, he has a point,\" said Tsume. \"From what\nwe've seen of the I.T.O.U.E so far, they usually work subtly and precisely;\ncome in, capture, and leave as quickly as they arrived.\"\n\"But this time, they're coming in loud because we're\nthe first ones to actually oppose their tricks, and now with the location of\ntheir base compromised, they've been backed into a corner,\" said Volcan.\n\"Or,\" added Vinge. \"This is nothing more than a\ndiversion.\"\n\"That's one hell of a diversion,\" Ayane commented,\njerking her thumb towards the wyvern as another tank shot at it.\n\"Probably the point; draw all attention to himself,\"\nsaid Vinge.\nLighris stepped in. \"Hey, there's a small war going\non in the A-Plaza right now; we don't have time for a million words! Let's just\nget in there and wreck the thing!\" And with that, before anyone could voice any\nprotest, Lighris was off, taking off into the sky and heading for the wyvern.\n\"Is he really that reckless?\" Rikyuu asked. \n \"Yep,\"\nreplied Pavan.\n\"Does he have a plan?\" Vinge inquired to Volcan.\n\"Probably not, but he is just as good a wrecking\nthings as he is at fixing them.\" The phoenix turned to Vinge, Pavan and Tsume.\n\"He's going to need backup; get in there and help him, do whatever you can to\ntrip up that thing. I'll go for its chest where it got hit before and see if I\ncan't break into it; destroy it from the inside out.\" He turned to Rikyuu.\n\"Rik, you're my backup; take on my powers again and see if you can help me rip\nopen the wyvern, and Ayane, you cover us; see if you can find a weak spot on\nthat thing and maybe find a way to destroy it.\"\n\"Aye, aye,\" Rikyuu returned, saluting sarcastically\nas his colours began to change to match Volcan's red and gold. \nVolcan nodded, studying each of his friends. \"Guys...\nbefore we go in there... I'm glad to have all of you with me,\" he said, solemnly.\n\"Whatever happens, I...\"\nThe phoenix felt a slap on his lower back before he\ncould carry on. \"'Ey! Don't you go talking like none of us are coming back from\nthis!\" Ayane remarked.\n\"Yeah, we've got this,\" agreed Rikyuu. \"We've come\nup against worse, right?\"\n\"Really?\" Tsume asked, eyeing Rikyuu incredulously.\n\"When did we ever take on something like that?\"\n\"...Okay ya got me there, but still! If we work\ntogether, we can beat that thing!\" Rikyuu encouraged further.\n\"Yeah! We're the god damn... uh... uuuuhh...\" He paused.\n\"The what?\" Volcan asked.\n\"Still been working on a team name,\" replied Pavan.\n\"Thought I'd get it spur of the moment but, I'm drawing a blank.\"\n\"A team name?\" Vinge asked, with a mix of disbelief\nand curiosity.\n\"Well we're a team right? A team of super-tough\nsuper humanoids! A team deserves a name, so we're... fuck, I can't come up with\nanything!\" Pavan scratched his head in frustration.\nVolcan thought for a moment, studying each of his\ncomrades; three phoenixes -four including his brother, two dragons -three\nincluding Obsidian, and a genetically engineered snow leopard as well, all with\nsupernatural abilities and of rare species that appear numerous times in myths\nand fairy tales across history.\nSupernatural...\n\"Os-Nàdarra,\" said Volcan.\n\"Come again?\" Rikyuu asked.\n\"Os-Nàdarra... it's Gaelic; means 'Supernatural'...\" He\nsmiled. \"Os-Nàdarra Sentinels. That'll be our team name.\"\nTsume smiled and nodded. \"I like it; sounds good and\ntough, and it suits us all for our roles.\"\n\"Well, not so much me,\" Ayane commented. \"I may be a\ndragon but I don't have any sort of powers like any of you guys.\"\n\"Besides your brain you mean?\" Pavan remarked.\n\"Nobody is THAT naturally smart in this day and age, toots!\"\n\"...Don't know if I should be honoured or offended,\"\nmuttered Ayane, rolling her eyes.\n\"It works,\" agreed Rikyuu.\n\"It does,\" added Vinge. \"I'd be proud to carry it.\"\n\"So what; we going to get badges or signet rings or\nsomething?\" Pavan asked.\nAnother explosion rocked the air as the wyvern\ndestroyed yet another military tank with its laser weapon.\n\"Discussion for another time, don't you think?\" Rikyuu\nasked Pavan.\n\"Right; rain-check.\"\n\"Os-Nàdarra,\" declared Volcan. \"Let's take him\ndown!\"\n \n(Play 'Electric Eye' by Helloween)\n \nVolcan, Vinge, Pavan, Rikyuu and Pavan took to the\nskies while Tsume returned to ground level; Ayane remained on the roof, taking\naim at the Wyvern through the attached scope on her DMR, surveying it for weak spots\nshe could exploit with the high-powered rounds she had loaded it with. Tsume\nwould go after it from below while the others fought for air superiority. As\npreviously assigned by Volcan, the group spread out; Tsume, Vinge and Pavan\nmoved to attack the wyvern from the side and beneath, while Rikyuu and Volcan\nflew off at an angle to flank it from behind, as well as pair up with Lighris. \nThe military still had it from the front; between\nthem and the newly named Os-Nàdarra Sentinels, they had a fair chance of boxing\nin the Cyber Wyvern, and inflicting as much damage as possible. But they had to\nbe cautious; they didn't know if this thing was some programmed automaton or was\nactually being piloted by someone; there was no telling what else it might do\nin its current situation.\nVolcan and Rikyuu caught up to Lighris, who was\nalready charging up for his first attack. The lightning hawk drew back his\nhands, electricity coursing along his arms as he flapped his wings to stay\nairborne, and with a thrust of his palms, send a bolt of lightning from both\nhands, the two merging into one as he cast, and sent it straight towards the\nmechanical wyvern, an electrical crackle emitting from his arms as he cast the\nbolt. Faster than the eye could follow the lightning bolt soared towards the\nwyvern...\nBut it never hit.\nA meter from its target, the lightning bolt suddenly\nfizzed out in a burst of sparks, leaving no sign on the hull that it had even\nlanded. Ayane, spotting this through her scope, took a second look as Volcan\ncast a fireball at the wyvern; as with Lighris' lightning bolt, the fireball\nextinguished before it hit the target, stopped by some unseen force. A force\nfield? Not like one she'd ever seen before; one that stopped lightning and fire\ncast by phoenixes from reaching it, but not bullets from military weapons or\n155mm tank shells, making her wonder what kind of field it was.\nShe watched as Tsume, below the wyvern, hurled a\nchunk of stone with her Terrakinesis towards the Wyvern's foot, trying to hit\nthe engines that allowed it to stay aloft; the rock went unhindered, although\ndidn't quite hit its intended target, striking just the toes. Still, Ayane took\nnot that despite being cast by a phoenix, the stone was not stopped by the\nforce field, just like the weapons of the military.\nVinge was next to move in for the attack, conjuring\nup large ice spikes that had cast towards the hull of the wyvern; the ice,\nharder than stone, was sent towards the dented area of the wyvern's torso, but\ndespite the damage that region had taken, the ice shattered on contact with the\nmetal hull. Pavan came in next, wind trailing in his wake in such a manner the\nair seemed to actually be shimmering; he soared past the wyvern, the wind in\nhis wake causing it to lose balance somewhat and dip towards the ground,\nquickly rectified by the propulsion engines on its back and feet. \nThen came Rikyuu; he soared at the wyvern, conjuring\nan energy hammer in his hands; even though he was using Volcan's powers with\nhis copying ability, he could still use his ability to manipulate laser-like\nenergy into weapons that behaved and functioned like the real thing. Fire\nerupted from his feet as he cast Volcan's rocket-flight trick -a power that let\nVolcan fly up to ninety miles per hour, a trick the phoenix had taught Rikyuu\nin the gang war when the dragon had first copied his powers, and used his\nenergy hammer to pound on the hull of the wyvern, trying to breach its hull;\nthe impact caused a minor dent in the chest, but not much more than that.\nThe wyvern, however, noticed the damage, and angled\nits head down; it was all Rikyuu could do to avoid getting vaporized as he dove\nbetween the wyvern's legs as it fired its laser weapon at him. Lighris moved in\nto attack again, casting more lightning bolts at the wyvern, but as before with\nthe larger one he had entered with, the electrical element phased out a meter\nfrom its target.\nSo that's it, she thought, her keen grasp\non technology and quick-thinking allowing her to swiftly piece things together.\nHe tuned it to protect him from outside\nenergy sources such as the elemental essence in lightning cast by Lighris or\nVolcan, but it can't actually stop kinetic energy like wind, or projectiles\nlike bullets, stones or ice. It's using the same kind of tech as those\nDisruptors the I.T.O.U.E use, but it's in a more condensed form to act as a\nbarrier; that's why he needs such dense armour for the hull because it can't\nstop projectiles or kinetic powers cast from outside of it! She continued\nto survey the wyvern through her scope. But\nwhere is the generator itself? \nThen, she spotted something on the legs; it wasn't\nthe generator for the force field, she was certain of that, but on the back of\nthe legs, there was a gap in the armour, a space left between the leg plates\nand the heel of the foot -likely for articulation purposes, and with a little\nmore zooming with the scope of her rifle, she could see some exposed wires\nunder the plating, along with a hydraulic support.\nShe grinned. \"Design flaw, Dr. Rex,\" she said,\ntaking aim and firing.\nThe bullet found its mark; it flew into the gap, and\nricocheted repeatedly as it struck the inside of the armour plating, eventually\nstriking one of the wires. The foot spasmed, and altering the angle and causing\nthe wyvern to veer unintentionally as its foot moved, thus changing where the\nthruster on the underside of the foot was aiming. It nearly fell out of the\nair, but managed to regain control, until a tank round struck its chest and\nsent it falling towards the ground, landing atop a small office building that\nwas crushed under its weight.\n\"Ha, excellent!\" She exclaimed\n\"Nice one Ayane!\" Volcan called, having seen her\nmake the shot.\nAyane glanced up, spotting the phoenix flying\noverhead, and called up to him. \"Volcan! The mech seems to be protected by some\nkind of energy field; it blocks your and Lighris' powers from reaching the\nbody!\"\n\"Yeah; I noticed,\" returned Volcan. \"Any advice?\"\n\"I'm still trying to spot whatever's generating it;\nlook for anything that stands out!\" The dragoness called back to him.\nVolcan glanced back over to the mech, seeing it\nalready starting to get back up, and saw it change direction, aiming its weapon\ntowards where Ayane was. He looked down, bellowing for her to get clear, but\nshe had already seen the attack and was running for the ledge. The laser beam\ncut through the building where she'd been standing as she leapt over the side\nand dropped down to the ground below, but an ominous shadow loomed over her;\nshe looked up, and saw a chunk of the building falling towards her!\n\"Oh crap!\" She cried, and ran to get out of the way.\nUnfortunately, she didn't get far enough. As the building piece hit the ground,\nit shattered; Ayane felt a piece of rubble fall on her tail, sending white-hot\npain shooting up her back and causing her to fall right on her stomach, her gun\nskidding away as more rubble fell over her legs and pinned. \"Oh come on; this\nis such a cliché!\" She complained, and tried to pull herself free of the\nrubble.\n\"Need a hand\nthere?\" A rather electronic voice asked as she heard heavy footsteps\napproaching her. Turning her gaze towards the source of the voice, her jaw\nnearly hit the ground as she saw a big, metal humanoid walking towards her; an\narmoured body with a machine gun attached to its right arm, which was levelled\nstraight ahead until the robotic form was standing over her, the gun lowering...\nAnother\nI.T.O.U.E borg!\nShe thought, and drew her pistol, shooting at the chest of the metal-clad\nassailant. The bullet ricocheted, but the 'person' backed up, holding up his\nleft hand defensively.\n\"Hey, hey,\nhold it!\" He exclaimed. \"Ayane, put\nthe damn gun down; it's me!\"\nWhen that voice reached her ears and Ayane\nrecognized it, her jaw nearly hit the ground as her mouth fell open. \"No way...\"\nShe muttered.\n\"Way,\"\nreturned Brent, stepping forward again and poking the barrel of his machine gun\nunder the rubble before he began to lift it, using leverage to elevate the\nchunk of stone off of Ayane's tail and allow her to roll out from under the\nrubble; the only thing that had saved her bones from being broken was her\narmour holding up against the weight of the rubble, leaving her little more\nthan annoyed, but unharmed.\nAyane turned to Brent, and eyed the visor of his new\n'suit' sternly. \"Brent... you really in there?\"\n\"Yep,\" replied\nthe hyena. \"What do you think? Built it\nmyself.\"\n\"But... how? And when?\" Ayane asked.\n\"Lot of\nsalvaging, and for about the last four months,\" replied Brent. \"Wasn't until you guys found that cyborg I\ngot the components I really needed; those servo motors and hydraulic skeleton\nwere the last touch.\"\n\"It looks kind of... clunky. You sure that thing will\nwork?\"\n\"It better,\nconsidering what we're up against here,\" returned the armoured hyena,\nlooking up at the cyber wyvern above.\nAyane grimaced. \"Well... guess we better find out,\nthen,\" she said. \"Let's cover the others.\"\nBrent held up the LMG mounted on his right arm. \"Armed and dangerous.\"\nThe two headed off to find themselves an adequate\nvantage point from which to take shots at the cyber wyvern. Meanwhile, the\nfliers were hard at work avoiding its weaponry; the cyber wyvern apparently had\nmore than just laser breath and missile launchers, it also had machine guns\nmounted on its sides above the legs. Once back in the air, the fliers took\nevasive action to keep clear of the guns, but were no closer to finding a way\nto destroy it.\nVolcan had looked over the entire wyvern but found\nnothing that looked like it could be a force field generator, projecting the\nfield that protected the cyber wyvern from their powers. Even if they did,\nRikyuu, who's powers weren't even affected by the field, had no better luck\nbreaching the outer hull of the cyber wyvern than the others had; Volcan\ncouldn't tear it open, and his morphing polearm, even with a great deal of\nmomentum behind it in spear form, couldn't pierce the Adamantite. \nMay not be as\nstrong as Titanium but it's still sturdy enough to stop even me, Volcan thought. And I can't melt through it because my\npowers won't work; it stops all energy types from reaching it but not solid\nobjects manipulated kinetically. He rubbed his chin in thought. Maybe if we could find something large and\nhard enough to penetrate the hull... but what? The thing took two missiles and\nseveral tank shells and only cracked.\nVolcan banked aside and flew over to Vinge as Rikyuu\nand Lighris kept up their attacks on the wyvern, with Tsume attacking from\nbelow with stones, trying to throw off its flight patterns and bring it back\ndown again. The ice phoenix saw Volcan coming, and turned to meet him, both\navians beating their wings heartily to stay aloft.\n\"Volcan; nothing we have can breach that armour,\"\nsaid Vinge. \"I hate to say it, but I'm not sure how to beat this thing; I never\ntrained to fight massive machines.\"\n\"Neither did I,\" returned Volcan. \"But there has to\nbe some way to break through! We just need to find something hard enough.\"\n\"Aside from Titanium what's harder than Adamantite?\"\nRikyuu called as he flew past.\nVolcan frowned. \"I really don't know...\" He said. \"Our\nearlier plan won't work; my powers go dead if I get inside that thing's force\nfield, and I can't melt my way into it from too far away. I'm stumped; I really\ndon't know what to do now.\"\n\"There has to be a way...\" Rikyuu said, trying to\nhold back the sense of hopelessness that threatened to overwhelm him. They had\ntried everything already but nothing they did seemed to do anything to the\nCyber Wyvern...\nVinge seemed to have a thought. \"Maybe if I...\"\nHe did not get to finish before the electronic sound\nof the wyvern firing its laser weapon again filled the air; the three turned,\nand saw the beam angling towards them. \"Look out!\" Volcan cried, and the three\ndove down, dropping below the beam as it cut across the air, burning its way\nthrough a skyscraper.\nThe upper half of the building creaked ominious; the\nthree looked up as parts of the building began to crumble away, windows\nshattered and bricks splintered as the weight of the structure, having lost its\nsupports, collapsed into itself. And then, it fell away from the main body,\nleaning ominously over the street below where Volcan, Rikyuu and Vinge stood,\nshattering as it hit a neighboring structure and fell in thousands of pieces\ntowards them.\n\"Move, move, move!!!\" Volcan roared, grabbing both\nof his friends by the backs of their necks -since they had no shirts for him to\ngrab, and hurled them out from under the path of collapsing building, both men\nscreaming in surprise as they were sent flying involuntarily through the air,\nhitting the hard pavement safely out of the danger zone. \nWith his friends safe, Volcan began to sprint to get\nhimself out, but a pair of I-beams fell in his path, catching his foot as he\ntried to sprint over them and making him fall flat on his face, making stars\ndance in front of his eyes as his beak was pushed back into his face with\npainful force. \"Fuck!\" He groaned, rubbing his face, only to look up in horrid\nrealization as he saw some of the rubble still falling towards him.\n\"No!\" Vinge bellowed, and scrambled to his feet; he\nknew he'd never reach it in time, so instead, he thrust his palms forward,\ncasting streams of ice towards Volcan, rapidly forming a dome over the fire\nphoenix and angling the top like a pyramid, and making it as thick as he\npossibly could with such a short span of time, leaving an opening for the\nphoenix to crawl out through, but the opening was covered by rubble, succeeding\nin trapping the phoenix. The ice was four inches thick, solid, but though ice\nof that density was quite strong -especially the kind formed by an Ice\nElemental, it was still only ice, and would not hold long...\nRubble pinged off of the top of the ice pyramid;\nchunks of brick, glass and wooden flooring did little damage, but an I-beam\nstruck the surface, causing it to spider-web. More and more rubble piled around\nthe ice pyramid, until Volcan was in complete darkness, unable to see, hearing\nonly the sound of the rubble sliding against the ice, and feeling the creeping\ncold of the ice around him.\n\"Not good,\" Volcan said to himself, knowing what would\nhappen if he didn't get out of there quickly. His feathers were made of fire,\nand would consume all of the oxygen in this little space in less than a minute.\nHe knew Vinge was only trying to protect him, but this had only prolonged the\ninevitable. Unless, he used his human form; Volcan had the inherent ability\nfrom his mother's side of the family to shapeshift into a human or a feral\nversion of himself; the former would take away all of his powers, but he could\nsurvive for a time in this space if he used it here.\nOr maybe not; he heard more cracking and looked up\nto see the ice was already beginning to give under the rubble's tremendous\nweight. It would not hold for long... even if Volcan went to his human form,\nonce the ice gave way the rubble would crush him; not even he was strong enough\nto hold up the weight of a skyscraper.\n\"Shit, shit, shit!\" Volcan cursed repeatedly,\nthinking to try and find a solution. \nHe was scared; if he didn't do something to get out\nof here, he was going to be buried alive, and he could not come back to life\nfrom such injuries as this would cause...\nImages of his family flashed through his mind; his\nbrother, his grandparents, his dearly beloved mother... what would happen to them\nif he was gone? They'd be shattered... and if his friends could not stop the\nI.T.O.U.E on their own, who would protect his family from them if he was dead?!\n \n(Play 'Nest of Fiends' by\nAdrian von Ziegler here; link in story description)\n \nHis fear began to become mixed with anger, even as\nthe ice cracked ominously over his head. Had he become the hero of Unity Falls\nonly to die in a collapsing building, after saving his hometown from a violent\ngang war that threatened to destroy his home and injure the people he loved?\nHad he come so far in his career, only for a circumstantial accident to\ninterrupt his life before it had even truly begun? And had he dared to\nchallenge one of the most dangerous organizations in the world, only to be\ndenied the chance to see the true face of the enemy he had made?!\nBut as Volcan's anger grew, he felt something; his\nbody began to ache, mildly at first, before he doubled over in pain, clenching\nhis stomach as if something were trying to tear its way out of his body. And it\nmay have been just that; he knew this feeling. He'd felt it in the past; he\nknew its cause. A darkness, deep within himself, that had haunted him his whole\nlife; a second presence, like a second personality but with power of its own,\nthat would use his negative emotions to fuel its strength and take over.\nNow, with his life in danger, and so many said\nemotions surfacing so quickly, that darkness was coming again, seeing its\nopportunity to be free and wreak havoc across the world once more until someone\nstopped it. But Volcan knew even this great evil within himself would not\nsurvive the collapsing building; even if he did let it out, if as a last ditch\neffort to survive. This evil had never saved anyone before, and it would not\nsave anyone now, not even Volcan.\nHe fought against it, shouting defiantly to the\nspace around him as he tried to fight it. \"You're not taking me again!\" He said\nin a low voice.\nUnknown to Volcan, his feathers had already begun to\ndarken; this evil presence in himself also altered his appearance, changing his\ncolours to feathers of black and violet in contrast to his usual fire red and\nbright yellow; even his eyes changed from their usual sky blue to a sinister\nviolet. As the struggle carried on, Volcan's feathers continued to change to\nthat sinister colour scheme.\nI can't let\nthis happen! Volcan\nscreamed in his mind, and directed his thoughts to the evil presence. Everyone needs me, not you! You won't take me; I won't let you take me!\n            The evil didn't respond... it couldn't\nrespond. It was not sentient; it was mindless, wicked, destructive, and knew\nonly how to kill everyone and obliterate everything it saw. It could not be\nreasoned with, and worst of all, it could not be controlled. Volcan's life was\nin danger; he knew it, the evil knew it, and it would stop at nothing to come\nout, and try and take control to protect itself and continue its singular\npurpose of destruction.    \n            \"No!\" Volcan said defiantly. \"This...\nis... not... happening... again!\"\n \n            ~~~~~\n \n            Vinge and Rikyuu -who had reverted\nback to his regular self with his blue scales and yellow eyes- had already\nbegan trying to dig their way into the rubble to try and free Volcan, their\nhands pulling at the chunks of debris as they desperately fought to reach their\nfriend, and the battle with the Cyber Wyvern carried on behind them. Tsume sent\nthe largest chunks of stone she could manage at the Wyvern, trying to knock it\nout of the sky, but it had caught onto her assaults from below, and was now\nflying higher to evade her; attempting to send rocks so large to such a height\nwas beyond her ability to do for long, and tired her quickly. The wyvern\nattacked her, using its laser weapon once again, and her only salvation was\nPavan diving in to rescue her, getting her out of the path of the attack.\n            Lighris, Ayane and the newly arrived\narmoured figure, along with what was left of the army, continued to attack the\nwyvern, firing bullets, artillery shells and lightning bolts -from Lighris- at\nthe creature, but nothing they did was working; many of their shots fell short,\nothers lacked the momentum to damage the armoured body of the Cyber Wyvern;\ntheir attempts were getting nowhere, and they were running out of people to\nkeep fighting; every time the wyvern attacked, the numbers of the army thinned,\nand the anthropomorphic heroes who had now called themselves the Os-Nàdarra\nSentinels were down one member.\n            As Vinge continued to dig, he\nsuddenly stopped, freezing in place -no pun intended- as he felt something\notherworldly make its presence known. He stared at the rubble, finding himself\ninstinctively backing up from it, which at first went unnoticed by Rikyuu until\nthe dragon saw Vinge out of the corner of his eye, immediately noticing the\nstunned look on his face.\n            \"Vinge, what is it?\" He asked.\n            \"Something is happening in there...\"\nThe ice phoenix replied. \"I think we should step back!\"\n \n~~~~~\n \n            A flash before his eyes... he didn't\nknow what it was, but suddenly he was in a completely different place. A place\nwhere the world around him seemed to be divided into two halves; one side was\nwhite, where he was standing, and the other side was the darkest black he had\never seen, with a deep line of gray separating the two parts of this world like\na toneless equator. He was free-floating, and couldn't tell if he was facing up\nor down, or which way was left or right, but he wasn't falling.\n            \"Where the hell...?\" Volcan asked.\n            His voice echoed, as if he were in a\nlarge empty room. Not like he could tell what was a wall and what was a floor\nor ceiling in this place... but where was he? Was he hallucinating? \"Eh,\nprobably,\" he muttered to himself. \"This close to death I suppose anything is\nnormal... wait, but I've died before .This didn't happen then.\" He shuddered as\nhe remembered that experience; so tired out and broken from his battle with\nWarwick Torison, he'd collapsed. What happened after, he didn't know, but\nbefore long, he found himself awakening as if from a nightmare to find his body\nin excruciating pain as he rode out a case of the stiffs he never wanted to\nfeel again.\n            At that dark thought, the blackness\nseemed to come alive. Volcan turned his gaze towards it, and it was only then\nhe saw the blackness wasn't some sort of void. It was an inferno, filled with\nflames as dark as the night -the same colour as the flames his counterpart\nused, and it was spreading.\n            He stared hard towards it as he\nthought he saw movement, and at the fore of the flames, he saw that destructive\nother half of him. Perfect in his likeness in everything but colour, the\nphoenix with black and violet feathers, violet eyes, and flew with a mad cackle\nof glee and eyes wide with pure insanity as it flew towards him, the flames\nbehind it trailing, crossing the gray area and into the white.\n            How could this be; how could Volcan\nand this dark half of himself be in the same place at the same time? They\ninhabited one body, and a single mind...\n            It occurred to Volcan... he'd always\nbeen told everyone alive had both good and evil in their souls; it was a\nconcept that held a place in many stories, songs and even religious texts;\nstories like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were essentially inspired by this concept,\nthough most didn't believe a person's evil side could be awakened through means\nof chemistry like the story told, but through tragedy, or anger; something that\nforcefully changed them even if for a moment or changed them indefinitely if\nthey could not recover.\n            A fact which Volcan had become all\ntoo aware of, and could confirm it to be true. This darkness had seized him\nfour times before in his life; once when he was a child, when he angry over\nsomething that had happened at school -he could not recall what at this point,\nbut he had never been so enraged before. During that time, his mother had to\nsubdue him. The second time it occurred was on his thirteenth birthday\n-ironically- when someone had broken into his house, and tried to attack his\nmother. Once more it had been up to her to subdue him after Volcan drove out\nthe intruder, whom they never saw again, but she had required help from Lighris\nthat time; Volcan was bigger than the first time this had happened, and therefore\nharder to control.\n            Three years later, it happened\nagain; some punks at school had assaulted Pavan, the same ones who Volcan had\nonce rescued from when the two had first met after they'd locked the poor wind\nphoenix in a box and trapped him with no way out. The same kids had gone after\nPavan once again, and this time left him hospitalized; for no reason but\napparently the fun of it, according to them. When Volcan had heard this\nstraight from the mouths of the assailants, he'd snapped, changing once more and\nputting both into a coma, thankfully mistaking them for dead in his blind fury.\nThis time however, there had been no one to subdue him, and he was set loose on\nthe city, destroying an entire building before his brother and Pavan both came\nand stopped him together.\n            And then the fourth time; his fight\nwith Warwick Torison, one of the members of The Mana, who had superhuman\nstrength that exceeded even Volcan's own, brought on by steroidal drugs and\nmagical enhancement by their magister, and he had nearly beaten Volcan to death\nbefore the phoenix had turned into this dark form approaching him now. But even\nthat had not been enough to stop Warwick; Volcan's blind, undisciplined,\nunthinking dark half had been easily outmaneuvered by the man, and after\nknocking him out, Volcan regained control of himself, and finished the fight\nwith his own hands. \n \n(Play Epic Score 'Strength\nto Believe' composed by Daniel James,-see the description for link)\n \n            He had never understood where this\nevil had come from; his mom had always been hesitant to tell him, but he knew\nshe knew the cause, somehow. There was no amount of evil in the heart of anyone\nthat could change them so drastically. But he did understand that this evil was\none of the many things that made him so desperate to make a difference in the\nworld; to try and do his part to change it. There was enough darkness on Earth,\neven in his home country; he did not need to be adding to it.\n            He understood now where he was... he\nwas seeing his soul, the way he pictured it in his subconscious. Illusion or\nnot, this was very real, deep within himself...\n            Yes... this darkness was part of him;\nhe could not be rid of it, but it would never own him. He would not allow it\nto; it was not stronger than him. In terms of power they were equal, but this\nevil was driven only by primal instinct and some pre-conceived natural affinity\nfor disaster, but it was not sentient. That was why Volcan was the dominant\npersonality so long as he could keep his emotions under control. But now with\nhis life in danger, he had lost that control.\n            But this time, he would not let the\nevil have him; it would accomplish nothing, and would only doom him and his\nfriends. He stared at it with hatred as it approached, hand drawn back as if to\nclaw at him as it reached him. He didn't put up his guard in readiness to\ndefend himself; he was done hiding from this evil. This time, the one being\ncontrolled would be the evil in his heart; alone neither of them stood a\nchance, but if he could control it, and use its power for his own, maybe he\ncould make a difference.\n            I\ndon't know if this is possible, or if will do anything... he thought, the\ndark image of himself mere seconds from him now, cackling with insane glee as\nit stiffened its wings, gliding towards him and prepared to attack.\n\"But I'm not about to let you destroy me!\" He\ndeclared as he charged in to meet the evil. \"This time I'm the one who'll take you!\"\nHis fist swung at the same time as the\ndoppelganger's claw swept towards him.\nTheir arms met.\nTheir arms merged...\n \n~~~~~\n \n(Play 'With Great Power' by\nImmediate Music here)\nKABOOM!\nThe rubble exploded with tremendous force, a loud\ncry followed by strangely-coloured fire bursting through the debris, the flames\nburning the pieces of building despite them not being flammable as they were\nsent arching through the air, some evil disintegrating as they flew. Vinge and\nRikyuu shielded their faces with their arms, keeping low to avoid some of the\nflying rubble as the shockwave that scattered it rushed over them, nearly\nthrowing them off balance. This was not what Vinge had been expecting, but he\nhad been no less prepared for it, and so braced himself.\nThe two lowered their arms, and saw something that\ndefied all explanation.\n            From the rubble, he appeared. An\navian that, although looked like Volcan, at the same time was not the same\nphoenix they knew. His body and overall size was unchanged, but the colour of\nhis feathers had altered, the red and blue replaced with a bright, emerald\ngreen and a deep, sapphire blue, his eyes had become bi-coloured, the right eye\nblue, the left eye purple, and the flames coursing over his arms and wings\nmatched the colour. Even the normally orange skin of his hands and feet had\nturned blue.\n            But the energy... Rikyuu could not\nsense it as Vinge could but the Ice Phoenix sensed some otherworldly force\nconnected to the flames that burned along the body of this new phoenix, like\nsome energy that predated time and space itself. Vinge had no idea how he knew\nthat, but the energy he felt was like a chaotic clash of two primordial forces;\nsomething older than even the elements he and his friends commanded.\n            It was like chaos itself had taken\nform...\n            Rikyuu stood up, and approached the\navian carefully, his eyes still filled with bewilderment as his mind tried to\nprocess what he was seeing. \"V-Volcan?\" He called out.\n            A response; the avian moved his head\nto look at Rikyuu. A long stare of uncomfortable silence was shared between the\ntwo of them, neither one uttering a single word as their eyes met...\n            Until...\n            Volcan suddenly sprang at the\ndragon, arms and wings flayed out. \"HA!\" He bellowed.\n            \"AH!\" Rikyuu screamed, completely\ncaught off guard by what at first he thought was an oncoming attack, stepping\nback only to trip on a piece of debris and falling flat on his backside, crushing\nhis own tail under his weight and bringing a whimper of pain to his lips as he\nthrew his arms over his face defensively.\n            Until he heard the laugh; laughter\nin a voice he knew well, and had heard at his own expense before. Slowly, the\ndragon removed his arms from his face, and stared up at his discoloured friend,\nseeing him laughing at the dragon heartily. It certainly sounded like Volcan;\nhis voice seemed a little distorted, almost like it was echoing, but Rikyuu's\nkeen ears caught the familiar vocals. \n            \"Oh, the look on your face!\" Volcan\nexclaimed.\n            \"Volc... that really you?\" Rikyuu\nasked.\n            \"What, doesn't it look like me?\"\nVolcan asked, shrugging. \"The look on your face, you think you'd seen a hoof!\" He grunted as Rikyuu lunged\nforward and punched him in the gut; not hard, but unexpected, with just enough\nforce to knock some of the wind out of him. He cringed from the punch at cast a\nquestioning glance at Rikyuu. \"What... did I do... to deserve that?\"\n            \"You're standing there, completely\nchanged, and the first thing you do is spook me?!\" Rikyuu demanded. \"I\nshould've left you buried in the rubble, had I known you'd do that!\"\n            \"We both know ya don't mean that,\"\nsaid Volcan.\n            Rikyuu allowed himself a smile.\n\"You're right. I don't. But seriously; what's with the colour change?\"\n            \"Colour change?\" Volcan asked.\n            \"Look at your arm,\" Vinge stated.\n            Slowly, he did; Volcan elevated his\nhand, and saw the colour his skin had changed to. His eyes widened with shock,\nand he began to look over the rest of his arm as well, seeing the green of his\nfeathers, and seeing the colour change had occurred all across his body,\nsurprising the phoenix with his sudden change.\n            \"What the hell is goin' on here?\"\nVolcan asked, too stunned to panic, but feeling agitation creeping into his\nmind nonetheless, unable to perceive what had happened to him. \"...Rikyuu, hit\nme.\"\n            \"Hit you? Why?\"\n            \"Because this has to be another\nhallucination; I'm green, I'm glowing, yet I haven't been hit by any radiation\nor anything,\" said Volcan. \"And even if I had, I don't absorb radiation; I'm just as vulnerable to it as the next guy.\"\n            \"Technically, the 'radiation being\ngreen' thing is just a stereotype,\" said Vinge. \"It is actually colorless.\"\n            Volcan and Rikyuu gave him a deadpan\nexpression. \"Seriously, you're doing this now?\" Rikyuu asked.\n            \"Sorry,\" replied Vinge, rubbing his\nneck in embarrassment.\n            A nearby explosion reminded them\nthat there was still a battle going on; the sound of machine gun fire and\nbullets pinging uselessly off of the hull of the cybernetic wyvern snapped all\nthree of them back to attention, and they turned to look at the wyvern as it flew\noverhead; the propulsion system previous destroyed by Ayane had somehow begun\nfunctioning again, and now the machine was back in the air.\n            \"Okay...\" Volcan began. \"I really\ndon't know if this new form is going to make much of a difference against that\nthing, guys, so if anyone has a plan, now's a good time to share it.\"\n            \"We have to ground that thing\nfirst,\" stated Vinge. \"Then, we need to penetrate its armour.\"\n            \"How? That thing took sidewinders\nand it's still intact,\" Rikyuu pointed out.\n            \"Not entirely,\" stated Vinge. \"The\narmour was cracked, and by now it has to be weakened with all the hits it has\ntaken; any armour will collapse under enough force, and I have something in\nmind that might work.\"\n            \"Just tell us what you need,\" said\nVolcan.\n            \"I need that thing grounded,\" stated\nVinge. \"And kept as still as possible, while I make something to penetrate its\nshell, and hopefully destroy it.\"\n            \"You sure your ice can punch\nthrough?\" Rikyuu asked.\n            Vinge nodded. \"I can create ice as\nhard as iron,\" he said. \"All it'll need is momentum, and it'll go through\nanything.\"\n            \"It's worth a shot,\" said Volcan.\n\"Come on Rik; let's go take that thing down!\" And with that, Volcan strode\nforward, jumping into the air and spreading his wings, beating them hard to\nkeep himself airborne, and gaining altitude quickly. Rikyuu followed suite, his\nleathery, bat-like wings carrying him aloft right behind Volcan.\n            Meanwhile, Vinge too spread his\nwings and flew, but in a different direction; he flew up above the buildings,\nsteering clear of the ongoing battle until he was above even the tallest of\nskyscrapers, before he put his hands together, pulling them apart to reveal an\nobject, shaped like a railway spike but composed entirely of ice, and flew in\npursuit of the wyvern, the object steadily becoming larger as he flew.\n            The wyvern circled back for another\nattack, unleashing another energy beam directly at the military, instantly\nvaporising one of the tanks. Soldiers, now realizing the hopelessness of their\nsituation, began fleeing for cover. No further air support had arrived yet, and\nthey were rapidly running out of tanks and heavy artillery to use against the\nwyvern. Ayane and Brent had run out of ammunition for their weapons and were\nnow unable to continue the battle, instead going to help the police evacuate\ncivilians from the area.\n            Lighris flew in to attack the wyvern\nagain, still trying to use his lightning attacks despite their futility.\nEventually, he flew too close, and was batted away by one of its wings, losing\nhis aerial balance and falling onto the roof of a nearby structure, landing on\nhis stomach with enough force to knock the wind out of his lungs. He coughed,\ncausing dirt and dust on the rooftop to blow away from himself, and struggled\nto push himself up on his hands.\n            Tsume and Pavan appeared over the\nside, the former carried by the latter as they landed on the rooftop, sprinting\nover to Lighris to help him to his feet. \"You okay?\" Pavan asked.\n            \"Fuck no; I'm not okay!\" Lighris\nbarked. \"I keep throwing bolts at that thing with enough jolt to overload a\npower plant and it's not even flinching!\"\n            \"I don't know if you noticed\nLighris, but your bolts aren't even touching it,\" Tsume pointed out. \"It did\nthe same thing for Volcan's fireballs; it must be protected by some sort of defensive\nshield that stops elemental attacks, except the stones I've been hurling at\nit.\" She frowned. \"Which, at this point I just feel stupid for trying.\"\n            \"Least you've been doing something,\"\nstated Pavan. \"I can't seem to even trip it up with the wind blasts I've been\nusing.\"\n            \"Dammit, where the heck is the rest\nof the Air Force?\" Lighris demanded.\n            \"I have...\" Pavan started, but paused\nas something flew over them; the three of them glanced up to see a green,\nwinged figure flying over them. They look up in curiosity, but gawk in surprise\nas they recognize the person, despite their apparent colour change, with his\nfeathers having turned green and blue.\n \n(Play 'Flight of the\nWarrior' by Hammerfall)\n \n            \"Volcan?!\" All three exclaimed in\nutter disbelief as they saw the green feathered fire phoenix soaring back into\nthe battle, heading straight for the cyber wyvern.\n            As if sensing him coming, they cyber\nwyvern turned its head to face the phoenix, only to be struck by his fist as he\nflew past. The amount of force behind Volcan's punch was both unexpected and\nstronger than before, sending the creature's head back with enough force to\nmake it tilt ominously, as well as audibly hyper-extending some of the servos\nof its next with a series of protesting groans\n            Even Volcan himself was surprised,\nlooking at his hand. Whatever changes had given him this new colour had also\nincreased his strength! He grinned, and began to circle back to attack again.\n\"Let's see what else it did!\" He said before clenching both of his hands tightly,\nconjuring flames within his hand until his fists were engulfed, and with a\nthrust of both palms, he launched a pair of his special combustive fireballs\n-appropriately called Firebombs- at the Cyber Wyvern.\n            Its shield did not stop the green\nand blue flames as they struck its hide; the outside visibly heated, and the\nexplosive force ruined its flight pattern and sent it careening into a building\nonce again, sparks exploding as its wings gouged into the side of the sky\nscraper while it fought to regain control.\n            While Volcan fought the cyber\nwyvern, Lighris, Tsume and Pavan just stared in shock at the transformed\nVolcan, and how his new power seemed to actually be helping him beat the\nmechanical monster that they previously could not even hurt! Their astonishment\nwas interrupted as Rikyuu appeared at their sides, shouting their names to get\ntheir attention.\n            \"Hey guys; we have a plan for taking\nthat thing down!\" He exclaimed.\n            \"What've you got?\" Pavan asked.\n            \"We have to ground that wyvern\nfirst,\" stated Rikyuu. \"I may have an idea how to do that. Lighris, Tsume,\nthink you two could keep it pinned?\"\n            \"Yeah,\" assured Lighris.\n            \"Piece of cake,\" replied Tsume.\n            \"Alright; Volcan will wear it down\nfor now,\" continued Rikyuu. \"Pavan, give me your arm for a sec.\"\n            \"What, like take it off and toss it\nto you?\" Pavan asked in jest.\n            \"Just get over here!\" Rikyuu urged,\nimpatiently. \n            Lighris looked out towards his\nbrother. \"Hey Rik,\" he began to ask the dragon as Pavan walked over to Rikyuu.\n            \"Yeah?\"\n            \"Any idea what's happened to my bro\nthere?\" He asked. \"I've never seen energy like that before.\"\n            \"I don't think anyone has,\" remarked\nRikyuu. \"I have no clue what kind of power it is, but right now it seems the\nwyvern can't resist it like he could your lightning or Volcan's flames before,\nand we have to use that; we'll worry about what it comes from after the\nbattle.\"\n            Lighris reluctantly agreed... but\ncouldn't help but feel concerned for his sibling...\n            Pavan held out his arm to Rikyuu,\nwho grasped it firmly with a glowing palm. Pavan felt nothing, but noticed\nimmediately as Rikyuu's colours suddenly changed to be identical to that of the\nWind Phoenix, except for the red diamond markings on his neck and forehead,\nsince those were not part of his natural colour. Pavan stepped back in surprise\nas Rikyuu let go of his arm, blinking as he recalled Rikyuu's ability. \n\"I'll never get used to seeing you do that,\" he\nadmitted.\nRikyuu chuckled. \"Few ever do,\" he said. \"Alright,\nnow; Pavan, you and I are going to create a wind around the cyber wyvern; we're\ngoing to cause a wind tunnel that'll send it straight down to the ground. Once\ndown there, Tsume and Lighris will have to keep it there.\"\n\"Right-o!\" Pavan crowed, hopping into the air and\nkicking his heels together. \"Hope you can keep up, Riky!\" And with one call of\n'Zoop!' from Pavan, he was off, breaking into a run and taking to the sky in\nmere seconds with incredible speed.\n\"Oh you bet I can!\" Rikyuu called after him, taking\noff into the air in a similar fashion and with identical speed.\nTsume shook her head. \"Oh, boys,\" she said before\nshe ran towards the edge of the building, leaping off and summoning a stone\nfrom the ground below, catching it as it flew past her and gripping it with both\nhands, letting it carry her through the air until she was back at ground level.\n\"You're no less of a show-off!\" Lighris called down\nto her as he took flight; he wasn't as fast as Rikyuu or Pavan in the air, but\nhe'd make it there before they put their plan into action.\nTsume scoffed up at him, and sprinted up the street\ntowards the battle again, gathering all the energy she could from whatever\nsources of earth she could find; trees, flowers, grass, anything with life to\nrejuvenate her enough for what she planned to do when the wyvern hit ground\nlevel.\n \n~~~~~\n \nCockpit of the\nCyber Wyvern...\nThe hull of Aerial Savior shook violently as Dr.\nRex's greatest invention was struck once more by Volcan Skilerain's strange\ngreen flames. The doctor was mind-boggled by what was happening; he had\ndesigned his force field to stop all types of energy attacks generated by every\nknown species of elemental; mere moments ago, neither Volcan nor his lightning\nhawk brother could damage the hull, but during the battle, a sudden energy\nspike had occurred, Volcan's energy readings had changed, and the force field,\nunfamiliar with the new energy frequency that Volcan's powers had changed to,\ncould not protect the hull anymore.\n\"What kind of power is this?!\" Rex demanded, trying\nhastily to recalibrate the force field for this new energy, but its frequency\ndid not exist on his system; nothing he could do could stop this new power\nVolcan had somehow achieved. Rex cursed, but he grasped the tiller again and\nscowled. \"Even without my shield... my weapon is still enough to defeat him!\"\nHe steered Aerial Savior back around to face Volcan,\nand already the targeting system was beginning to lock onto him, even as the\nFire Phoenix came at the wyvern head-on. When the system indicated a target\nlot, Rex pressed the firing button for the Mouth Laser, and saw through the\nviewport as the red beam erupted from the maw of the wyvernoid machine. Volcan\nhad begun to veer away even as the mouth opened, narrowly escaping the laser's\ntrajectory before it discharged.\n\"An agile adversary,\" growled Rex. \"I should expect\nno less from an avian; they're always at their best in the air. But he can't\nevade me forever...\"\nSuddenly, as he steered the ship around again, he\nfelt it begin to quiver, and suddenly felt a strange shift in the wind pushing\nagainst the underside of the left wing. \"Strange... the wind is picking up very\nsuddenly,\" he muttered, but then yelped in surprise as Aerial Savior began to\ntilt involuntarily; he tried to turn the ship to resist it, but could also feel\npressure on the top of the other wing, as if the wind itself were beginning to\nswirl around him!\n \n~~~~~\n \n\"Round and round we go, where do we stop? When down\nthe beasty goes!\" Pavan sang as he and Rikyuu, flying in rapid circles around\nthe cybernetic wyvern and generating air currents with their wind power,\ngetting as close to the wings as they could.\n\"Come on, Pavan; we gotta go faster!\" Rikyuu called,\nexpelling air from his palms as he soared, the entire world seeming to spin\naround him as he flew. \"This thing's still fighting us!\" \n\"Oh, you want faster?\" Pavan asked, grinning wildly.\n\"I'll show you faster!\" And suddenly, the Wind Phoenix took off at even greater\nspeed, leaving Rikyuu behind as he literally rocketed away, never losing his\ntrajectory as he continued the circuit around the wyvern. He was shouting\nsomething to Rikyuu while doing it, but it came across as utter nonsense,\neither because of Pavan's speed or that he was not actually trying to say\nanything decipherable. 'Zoopazoopazoopazoopazoopa!'\nWell I copied\nhis powers so if he can do it, so can I! Rikyuu thought, pouring more into his speed,\nrapidly accelerating until suddenly everything around him seemed to be in a\nswirling vortex of chaos; even the wyvern was so distorted he could scarcely\nidentify it at the speed he flew, struggling not to lose trajectory and go\nflying out of control. \"Grrrrrr!!\" He groaned.\nThe momentum generated by the two had sent the mechanical\nflying monster into an unstoppable spin, twirling around like a giant top but\nin midair; when the two finally broke away from it, away it went, spiralling\nout of control before angling up, and then immediately down, crashing into the\nstreets below with a very literal faceplant, straight into the pavement to\nstand comically up-side down, keeling over, and landing on its back with a\ndeafening crash.\nThe noise was more than cue enough for Tsume; in\nseconds, pillars of solid stone erupted from the ground, shattering the\npavement before bending -in complete defiance of the laws of physics- over the\nwyvern, dropping over its midsection and onto its wing, before a second pillar\nerupted and did the same from the other side, pinning it. The impact with the ground\nhad also apparently shorted out its force field, because when Lighris came down\nand cast lightning at its legs, the bolts travelled unhindered, striking the\npropulsion engines in its feet head-on and overloading them with a sure of\nelectricity. \nVolcan pumped his arm in triumph as he saw the\nWyvern pinned, and flew up into the air, looking for Vinge. It was easy to spot\nwhere the Ice Phoenix was; a gigantic spike, made entirely out of thick ice,\ntoo dense to see through, was free-floating in midair at least a kilometer over\nthe city, a winged figure hovering alongside it with feverish wingbeats. Volcan\ncould see the fatigue on Vinge's face as he approached; the ice phoenix had\nnever created something so large before.\nVolcan flew up beside him. \"You alright?\" He asked. \n\"I'll be fine,\" he said, keeping his hands on the\nspike. \"It's ready, but I can't aim it and guide it at the same time.\"\n\"Leave the guiding to me,\" said Volcan, flying up\nover the spike and placing his hands on the top, already beginning to sizzle\nwith the heat coming from his palms; he winced at the cold but ground his beak\nagainst the light pain he felt. \"Alright; you make sure this thing is on\ntarget; leave the rest to me!\" Volcan called. \"Just give me a signal before\nimpact so I don't crash with it!\"\n\"Right; go!\" Vinge called, and released his\ncryokinetic hold on the ice spike, letting gravity take it.\nFlames erupted from Volcan's feet, propelling him\ndownward; his hands remained placed on the ice spike, using his momentum to\nincreasing the rate of its drop. The air around him seemed to whistle as they\ndescended from above, falling so fast the ground seemed to be coming at him\nlike a charging herd of bull. Fighting against his instincts to pull up right\naway, he kept diving and pushing the spike, feeling an unseen force correct its\ntrajectory as they fell.\nBelow, Tsume, seeing the spike coming down, cupped\nher hands around her beak and called, \"Look\nout below!\" at the top of her lungs before she sprinted for cover.\nLighris looked up, and saw the spike coming down.\n\"Oh fuck me sideways!!\" He screamed\nbefore he took to the air.\nShouts of alarm could be heard from the American\nsoldiers, and immediately men started ducking behind the ruined tanks and\nnearby buildings, knowing there would be fragments sent flying about like\nshrapnel when that spike hit its target. Some even covered their ears as if\nthey thought there would be an explosion.\nSeconds from the target, Volcan saw Vinge's alert\nappear on the ice in front of him; an upward pointing arrow, forming seemingly\nout of nowhere on the surface of the ice. Volcan lifted his hands away from the\nice spike, somersaulting and bending both of his legs tightly together before\nhe stomped on the ice spike with all of his strength, sending it hurtling down\nat ridiculous speed, simultaneously slowing his own descent so that he could\nfly higher and get clear of the imminent impact. \nThe spike hit home; it struck the torso of the\ncybernetic wyvern; its tip was ground away at first as it failed to penetrate\nthe adamantite, but as the full weight and momentum of the spike hit, the\nadamantite broke like a dinner plate, sparks and bolts of electricity exploding\nfrom the torso as the ice tore into it, and crushed or impaled it inner\ncircuitry. As expected, shards of ice and metal scattered everywhere, windows\nbreaking and alarms of previously untouched cars blaring as their windows and\nframes suffered the barrage.\n\"Bullseye!\" Volcan called.\n\"Yes!\" Tsume screamed in delight.\n\"Fuckin' A!\" Lighris agreed.\nVinge let out a long sigh as he saw the results of\nhis and Volcan's combined efforts; between the density of his ice, and the\nmomentum of Volcan propelling it, not even seemingly impenetrable Adamantite\ncould stop the attack. In truth, Vinge had been expecting to fail, but he knew\nfrom all of his research of history that any armour could be breached with\nenough force even by an inferior material, and he had just proven it true. \n\"Physics... prevails,\" he said, panting. \"And so... do\nwe.\"\nRikyuu and Pavan returned to the scene as the others\nbegan to regroup, both of them a little tipsy thanks to their previous\nperformance; Rikyuu moreso than Pavan, since the Wind Phoenix was much more\nadapted to doing things like that than the dragon was. Rikyuu stumbled about,\neyes crossed, before being caught by Tsume as he started to fall over, and she\ndragged him by the arm to meet the others.\n\"I'm still spinning,\" he moaned.\n\"No you're not,\" returned Tsume.\n\"Well now that was a real...\" Pavan began, but Lighris\nappeared and grabbed Pavan around his beak, shutting him up instantly.\n\"You say, 'smash', 'blast', 'spin' or any sort of\ncorny pun right now, I swear I'm going to punch you SO hard that your dad will feel it over in England!\" Lighris\nbellowed. \n \n~~~~~\n \nThe army was quick to quarantine the wyvern; even\ndestroyed they were not taking any chances with this monstrous weapon of mass\ndestruction, rolling in additional tanks, heavy weapons and footsoldiers to\nclose off the area, keeping unauthorized individuals away. The Os-Nadarra\nregrouped near the quarantine, ready to assist them if the cyber wyvern were\nstill somehow a threat, despite the damage it had taken.\nAlthough, the Os-Nadarra were not really that\nthreatening themselves at that moment; they were weakened, exhausted from the\nbattle. Volcan seemed still ready to go on at first, but mere moments after the\nexcitement of the battle ended, the phoenix seemed suddenly distance, like he\nwas handling some kind of internal conflict, and wouldn't answer anyone who\nspoke to him, one hand on his head, the other against a wall to support him.\nBefore long, however, the fire phoenix was finally\nresponsive; his colours began to revert back to their normal hue of red and\ngold, the green and blue seeming to fade away from him... and then his eyes\nrolled back in his head and he began to collapse; Lighris was quick to catch\nhis brother, preventing him from hitting his head on the pavement, and propping\nhim up as the phoenix panted for breath.\n\"Volcan, you okay?\" Lighris asked. \n\"Yeah...\" He shook his head. \"But that was strange...\nfor a moment I felt like I was fighting with that other half of mine for\ncontrol... and for that moment, I thought I might lose.\"\n\"What's this 'other half' you're talking about?\"\nVinge asked.\nLighris stepped in. \"That's a complicated and very\npersonal story, pal,\" he said. \"Not sure you want to hear it.\"\n\"I think it's Volcan's choice if he wants to talk\nabout it,\" remarked Rikyuu.\nVolcan let out a sigh and looked at Vinge. \"Honestly\nI have no idea where it came from... but I've had it all my life,\" he said.\n\"Whenever I get really angry or scared, my feathers turn black and purple and I\ntake on this new persona of a rampaging destroyer.\" He shut his eyes. \"I\nmindless, uncontrollable wacko who attacks everything he sees... because of it I\ndidn't go near others in school very much; I did everything possible to avoid\nstressful situations, until the gang war. \n\"I only lost control once during that, when there\nwas a massacre in the streets caused by the Sylvia Syndicate; I lost my head,\nwent in and attacked them all.\" He cocked his head towards Rikyuu. \"Was\nactually Rik there who stopped me from going any further...\" The dragon nodded\nback. \"But since then, it never surfaced until I was under that building,\ndangerously close to death, and I felt it... him, trying to come out again. I\ndon't remember much after that but I think somehow I actually fused my energies\nwith his.\"\n\"But you're both fire elementals,\" Ayane, who was\nstill standing over by the metal-clad stranger, pointed out. \"Both you and that\nother half are fire phoenixes; elemental fusion can only be done between two\ncompatible elements, like Earth and Fire or Water and Wind.\"\n\"No, this was a different kind of fusion, I think,\"\nreplied Volcan. \"That other side of me is pure malice; pure destructive\ninstinct, no sentient mind. Little more than a wild animal with no self-control\nor direction; he's a monster, through and through.\" He shook his head,\nscratching it irritably. \"Look, whatever happened, I have no idea how it did...\nsomehow I became a new element; one Rex's force field didn't recognize. For now\nlet's not look a gift horse in the mouth and decide what we're doing next.\"\nThe metal-clad stranger moved. \"We go home; what else? Army's got it from here,\" they suggested.\n\"And who are you\nsupposed to be, monsieur?\" Tsume inquired, all eyes now on the figure.\nThe head of the armour turned to-and-fro. \"Anyone watching?\" They asked.\n\"Not that I can see,\" replied Lighris, glancing\naround. \"Too focused on the wyvern.\"\n\"Then...\" A\ngrinding sound later, sparks erupted from a crease in the chest... but nothing\nhappened. \"Ah stupid fucking thing, it's\nstuck! Hang on, guys...\"\n\"Well that's a little anti-climactic,\" muttered\nPavan.\n\"Totally,\" agreed Tsume.\nFinally, the front of the armour was pushed open by\na pair of hands, and a familiar face peeked out through the opening.\n\"Peekaboo,\" said Brent, and grinned as the jaws of everyone in the group dropped\n-except those of Ayane and Vinge, the latter whom settled for widened eyes, but\nthat was indication enough that he too had not been expecting the identity of\nthe pilot to be who it was.\n\"Brent?!\" Pavan barked at the top of\nhis lungs.\nBrent hurriedly shushed him. \"Quiet!!\" He said. \"The\nRCMP see me with an LMG they'll have me for lunch!\" He ducked back into the\narmour, shutting it again to conceal himself.\n\"Is that what you've been tinkering with in your\nworkshop for the last several weeks?\" Tsume asked.\n\"Sure is,\" replied\nBrent. \"See, after Ayane and I examined\nthat I.T.O.U.E cyborg I analyzed the servos and components for its limbs; they\nwere exactly what I needed for this power armour design I'd been planning for a\nwhile.\"\n\"Why didn't you just ask me? I could've built you\none,\" Ayane pointed out.\n\"Wanted to do\nit myself, and build something unique to me.\"\n\"So you build yourself an oversized soup can with a\nbig gun?\" Lighris asked. \"One that defectively traps you inside?\"\n\"Hey, I'm not\ntrapped!\" Brent\nprotested. \"I just... forgot to oil it...\"\nNobody believed him.\nVolcan arched an eyebrow at the armoured hyena. \"Brent,\nam I going to need to tear you out of there?\" He asked.\nAfter only a brief pause, the hyena flatly replied \"yeah probably...\" The armour's head\nshook. \"But forget that; I wanna get a\nlook at that wyvern before the army starts tearing it apart! I could use some\nof that tech to build a better suit.\"\n\"Unless you got a cloaking field on that thing I\nhope it's bulletproof,\" Tsume remarked. \"They'll shoot you if you try to go\nscavenge that monster.\"\nBefore Brent could reply, there was a shout heard\nfrom the quarantine; one of the soldiers announced spotting someone inside of\nthe Wyvern's head. \"This thing's not unmanned; there's some old geezer inside\nit!\"\nVolcan and the others glanced at each other, and as\na group they headed towards the quarantine, curiosity piqued. They were allowed\nthrough the quarantine, having already been part of the conflict prior, and\napproached the wrecked wyvern's head. They met the soldier who had called out\nthe discovery, and he pointed at the forehead, which only now the group could\nsee was partially transparent -rather odd considering it was clearly not glass\nor plastic, and squinting their eyes, they could see inside.\nThe pilot was a human man; an elderly one, at least\nin his sixties if not older, with a thick beard and a balding head, a narrow\nline of hair barely over his ears but the rest of his head was plain; a pair of\nbrown eyes glared back at them as the pilot sat, arms crossed as if waiting for\nsomething to happen, surprisingly calm despite his predicament of being trapped\ninside a wrecked machine surrounded on all sides by both American and Canadian\npolice and military forces, with no possibility of escape.\n\"So this guy was flying this thing the whole time,\neh?\" Pavan asked. \"Well, I say we pull 'im outta there, beat 'em up and then\nstuff him in a sack bound for Antarctica!\" He cracked his knuckles. \"Fly him\nthere last class!\"\n\"One problem; how do we get him out?\" Volcan asked.\n\"Even I can't break through that alloy.\"\nRikyuu heard Ayane stuttering, and turned towards\nher, seeing the shocked expression on her face as she stared at the man inside\nof the machine. \"Ayane, what's the matter?\"\n\"Guys...\" she said. \"That's Jacob Rex!\"\n\"What?!\" Volcan and Lighris demanded in unison.\nAt that moment, Vinge's expression darkened as he\nglared into the cockpit; the leader of the group that had taken his father away\nfrom him was there, less five feet away separated from him only by a layer of\nnigh-unbreakable metal. The man inside stared back at him, undeterred and still\nshowing no signs of any concern for his situation, despite the look of murder\non the face of the Ice Phoenix.\n\"Vinge?\" Volcan asked.\nThe ice phoenix didn't answer.\nSuddenly, a whirring noise sounded from inside of\nthe cockpit; the eyes of the pilot, who they now knew to be Jacob Rex himself,\nthe mastermind of the I.T.O.U.E, left Vinge's gaze and lowered to the console\nbefore him. He grinned as he looked back at Vinge, and tapped a button, a hiss\nof air and burst of steam erupting around the wyvern head where it connected to\nthe neck.\n\"Get back!\" Volcan barked, not knowing what would\nhappen, but wanting some distance if it turned out to be something bad. \nHe looked at Vinge; the ice phoenix wasn't moving\nfrom where he stood, even as the cybernetic wyvern head suddenly shook.\nReacting quickly, Volcan grabbed Vinge by the shoulder and pulled him back\nharshly, narrowly evading the head of the Wyvern as it suddenly detached from\nthe neck in a shower of sparks, launching itself by unknown means from its\nbody; an unfortunate trooper standing in its path had his head taken off by the\nsoaring machine as wings erupted from its sides and it began to ascend.\n\"Pavan, get after that thing; don't let it get away!\"\nLighris barked at the Wind Phoenix.\nThe wind phoenix smiled weakly. \"I would if I could\nman, but I'm still tuckered out from bringing that thing down before; I don't\nthink I could even stir up a breeze.\"\nLighris looked at Rikyuu. \"What about you?\"\n\"I'm no better,\" he replied. \"But I'll give it a\nshot.\" His colours changed, his scales reverting to a colour matching Pavan's,\nand he took off into the air, a sudden gust of wind following behind him and\npropelling him forward; off he went in hot pursuit, chasing the escape pod\nthrough the air.\n\"Come on guys; let's go!\" Volcan urged. \"We can't\nlet Rex get away!\"\n \n~~~~~\n \nWithin the hour, the door was breached; a deafening\nexplosion filled the air, spreading across the countryside as a pillar of dust\nmarked the point of origin; the hangar door burst into pieces, and fell all\naround the hangar below. Soldiers of both Canada and the USA dropped into the\nhangar, seeing the escape pod  under the\nbroken plates of the hangar door that the special forces team had found before;\nVolcan and co. had chased the escape pod all the way back to this location,\nwhere they met up with Captain Ford's unit.\nShortly after the soldiers entered, Volcan, Rikyuu,\nVinge and Ayane dropped into the base; the others remained outside, ready to\ncatch anyone who tried to escape from the base, while the rest entered to back\nup the armed forces. The hangar had already been secured, but there were two\ndoors that led out of the room, both leading to separate corridors. \n\"Alright; split into two teams! Canadians in one,\nAmericans in the other,\" Captain Ford instructed. \"We'll rendezvous back here\nin the hangar if we don't meet up deeper in the base; maintain radio silence so\nwe can sneak up on these guys.\" He turned to Volcan and his friends. \"You know,\nyou shouldn't be down here; this is a military op now.\"\n\"So was taking down that wyvern,\" stated Volcan,\nsternly. \"Didn't hear you guys complaining about us helping you out back with\nthat one; we're staying, whether you want us to or not.\"\nFord glared at Volcan. \"I could have you arrested,\nboy,\" he growled.\n\"Then go ahead,\" stated Volcan. \"My friend's father\nmay be down here; I'm not letting you guys screw up rescuing him. Besides, we\nhave more experience dealing with the I.T.O.U.E's monsters than you guys do;\nyou need us.\" \nFord clearly wanted to keep arguing, but  after a pause, the male German Shepard shook\nhis head. \"It's your neck,\" he said. \"Just stay out of the way.\"\n\"Back at you,\" said Volcan. He looked at Rikyuu.\n\"You and Ayane better follow them; Vinge and I will go with the Canadians.\"\n\"Right,\" agreed Rikyuu. \n\"Be careful you two,\" said Ayane\n\"You as well,\" returned Volcan, turning away from\nthem and motioning for Vinge to join him as they followed the Canadian troopers\ndown the first hallway, leaving the Americans to take the second.\nThe base was eerily quiet, only the light footsteps\nof the Canadian soldiers as they moved as quietly as possible could be heard in\nthe corridor. With a total of six soldiers, three walked on either side of the\nhallway, periodically checking rooms they passed; two soldiers stood on either\nside of the door, and when one of those two opened it, the other would be\nstanding at a safe spot, aiming his rifle inside before making entry, his\ncomrades quick to follow. Always, they expected an ambush, but never once was\nthere one waiting. The soldiers checked over a dozen rooms in the corridor;\neach one was gutted, no personnel in sight, resulting in them calling out\n'clear' each time.\n\"Something's not right here,\" said Vinge. \"The\nforces in this base should've been all over us by now; where are they?\"\n\"Do you think they've fortified their position\ndeeper in the base?\" Volcan suggested\n\"Why would they go to the trouble of gutting out the\nrooms if they did that?\" Vinge asked.\nOne of the soldiers was listening in on the\nconversation, and turned to his C.O. \"They have a point, Sarge; think we should\npick up the pace?\"\nThe sergeant considered for a moment, but he\neventually nodded. \"Yeah; I'm getting the same feeling,\" he said, and directed\nto two of his soldiers. \"Watch our backs, the rest of you with me; I'm on\npoint. Let's go, double-time!\" And with that, they continued up the hallway at\na quicker pace, two of them walking in reverse with Volcan and Vinge in between\nthem, rifles aimed back in case one of the skipped rooms held hidden personnel\nready to hit them from behind.\nDown the hall they went, passing through a pair of\ndouble doors that opened automatically at their approach, indicating the base\nstill had its power on, yet when Volcan tested his fire powers with a snap of\nhis fingers, he had no trouble generating sparks or an open flame, causing him\nand Vinge to share a suspicious glance once more; something about this entire\ninfiltration didn't seem right...\n\"Hey,\" one of the soldiers paused, putting up a hand\nand motioning for the others to stop; everyone, including the phoenixes, halted\nin their tracks. \"You guys hear that?\"\nThey stopped and listened. For a few seconds, there\nwas nothing, until suddenly a long metallic groan, one they could feel through\ntheir feet, was heard. Vinge dropped to the floor carefully and put his ear to\nthe ground, shutting his eyes and listening as the sound came once again.\n            \"It's coming from below,\" he said.\n\"Sounds like a... crane or something.\"\n            \"What would they need a crane for\ndown here?\" A soldier asked.\n            \"Good question,\" returned Volcan.\n\"Let's go find out; look for a set of stairs.\"\n            As the phoenix walked on ahead, one\nof the soldiers looked at his sergeant. \"When the hell did the kid start giving\norders?\"\n            \"Just follow him,\" the sarge\nreturned, gruffly. \"He's got more experience with these guys than we do so as\nlong as he doesn't lead us into anything risky, keep with him.\"\n            \"Yes sir.\"\n            Volcan let the sergeant catch up\nwith him, and glanced over at him. \"Most soldiers would be telling me 'this is\na restricted area; get out immediately' or 'go home' or some shit; why are you\nso okay with me being here?\"\n            \"I heard of the things you did\nduring the gang war that hit Unity Falls,\" returned the sergeant. \"And, like I\nwas telling them,\" he cocked his head back. \"You have more experience with\nthese terrorists than anyone here does; my superiors may not agree with me on\nit, but I'm forward thinking. I always turn to the one who knows before I would\nto the one who doesn't.\"\n            Volcan nodded. \"I appreciate your\nfaith in me,\" he said. \"But I'm not going to try and take over your unit; think\nof me as just a third wheel.\"\n            \"No worries about that,\" the\nsergeant returned, and the two shared a chuckle.\n            Finally, they found the stairs, and\ntrekked carefully down to the lower level, entering another corridor as they\nreached the bottom -this one shorter than the last, with the sound of the crane\nstill filling their ears and becoming steadily louder the deeper into the base\nthey travelled. They were getting closer to the source...\n            Then... it stopped. The sound of the\ncrane ceased very suddenly, causing an eerie silence to fill the corridors; it\nwas so quiet, Volcan and Vinge could almost hear their own hearts beating in\ntheir chests as their anxiety grew. This silence made Volcan uneasy; it was\nlike a scene in a horror movie, where suddenly everything would become deathly still,\nand the main character would be walking into certain death at the hands of an\nunexpected killer, be it man or monster...\n            A loud humming noise filled their\nears, and they felt the floor trembling at the sound, prompting everyone to\nstop and listen. Vinge went down on his belly again, putting his ear to the\nfloor and staring quizzically in to space as he listened. \"What is making that\nnoise? Never heard anything like it be...\"\n            KA-BOOOOOOOOM!\n            Volcan nearly jumped out of his feathers.\n            The soldiers jumped slightly, their\nweapons aimed straight ahead out of instinct. Vinge shot to his feet so quickly\nVolcan barely saw him move, the ice phoenixes hand grabbing for his slender\nsword sword, his wide eyes showing he too was caught off guard by the very\nsudden explosion. The whole corridor shook with the force of the blast; briefly\nbut surely, until the sound of heavy objects hitting solid flooring was heard,\nand this time did not stop.\n            \"The fuck was that?!\" One of the\nsoldiers demanded.\n            \"A bomb, obviously,\" another said\nmatter of factly.\n            \"Oh, no shit Sherlock!\"\n            \"Pipe down you two!\" The sergeant\nsnapped. \"Let's find out where that came from.\" And with that, he levelled his\nrifle once more, leading the way forward with a slightly quicker pace than\nbefore while all of his soldiers, staying in formation, followed behind him\nquickly. Volcan and Vinge quickened their pace, staying close to the front but\nmaking sure not to walk into the crosshairs of the Canadian troopers.\n            It took some searching, but\neventually the crew passed through another set of doors, finding themselves in\na large room. The moment the door opened, a cloud of dust erupted into their\nfaces, making them cough or sneeze in reaction. The two avians fanned away the\ndust with their wings, allowing the soldiers to make entry; they ducked for\ncover behind whatever objects they could find, and aimed their rifles into the\nroom, scanning for hostiles as the dust cleared.\n            The room was in shambles; piles of\nrubble and dirt stacked up to the ceiling on either end of the massive chamber,\nover a set of rails closely resembling those of a train. The crane they had\nheard before was now in sight, half-buried under the rubble, and constructed\nalongside what appeared to be gigantic conveyor machine that ran through the\nwall into another room, where the American soldiers were entering through, no\ndoubt having heard the explosion as well. The Canadians quickly called out to\nwarn them of their presence in the room to prevent friendly fire.\n            Rikyuu and Ayane appeared immediately\nafter the American soldiers, looking around and seeing the damaged chamber.\n\"What the heck happened in here?\" Rikyuu asked.\n            Ayane shouldered her DMR and knelt\ndown by the rails in the floor. \"They had a monorail down here, it looks like,\"\nshe said, and turned her gaze to the rubble piles. \"They must've blown the\ntunnels to cover a retreat.\"\n            \"So they got away?\" Captain Ford\nasked, and sarcastically added with a roll of his eyes. \"Just perfect... The\nprison was empty too; they took all of their hostages with them as well.\"\n            \"If we'd gotten here just moments\nsooner we could've nabbed them!\" Vinge hissed, kicking a discarded can across\nthe floor. \"Dammit!\"\n            \"Vinge, calm down; we...\" Volcan\nbegan, but the ice phoenix ignored him, and made his way over to one of the\nrubble piles. As Volcan watched, Vinge began to dig at the rubble with his\nhands, pulling some of it aside and absently letting it tumble to the floor.\n\"What're you...\"\n            \"If we don't get through this we'll\nnever find out where they're going,\" returned Vinge.\n            \"You have got to be joking, Vinge,\"\nAyane called. \"It'd take a lifetime to tunnel through that; even Tsume couldn't\nget through all that concrete.\"\n            \"Ayane's right, Vinge; we won't\ncatch them that way,\" agreed Rikyuu. \"We don't even know how far the tunnel\nbeyond goes, and they could collapse more of it if they suspect a pursuit.\"\n            Vinge looked back at them, giving\nthem a cold stare. \"And what would you have me do; just give up?\" He asked. \"I\njust found out my father is alive, but since Captain Ford just said the\nprison's empty, that means they still have him; I won't leave him with those\nmaniacs another moment.\" Turning away, he went back to digging, this time\ncreating an ice spike that he drove into the rubble, and tried to shake it\naround to dislodge some of the rubble, but he was still too fatigued from the\nbattle with the mechanical wyvern to properly maneuver it.\n            Unable to take anymore, Volcan\nhurriedly crossed the room, setting down his sword and polearm as he approached\nVinge, climbing up the rubble to him and putting a hand on his shoulder.\n\"That's enough, Vinge,\" he stated. \"This isn't the way.\"\n            \"You have a better idea?\" Vinge\nasked, turning on the fire phoenix and glaring at him.\n            \"For now, Vinge, there's nothing we\ncan do,\" he said. \"We can only wait until the opportunity to apprehend the\nI.T.O.U.E presents itself again.\"\n            \"Wait?! Don't you get it?!\" Vinge\ndemanded, throwing off the fire phoenix's hand and standing almost beak-to-beak\nwith Volcan. \"I've been waiting for answers for the last ten years, fighting my\nway through night terrors and the lack of knowing where my father was or what's\nhappened to him! Do you have any idea what it's like, dreaming every night\nabout the most traumatic experience in your life, unable to think about anything\nelse?!\"\n            Volcan looked back into Vinge's\neyes, unflinching as he stared into those ice blue orbs; already he could see\nthe tears forming at the corners of Vinge's eye sockets. It was easy to see the\nice phoenix was resisting the urge to cry, but he couldn't fool Volcan. \"I may\nhave some idea,\" replied Volcan. \"After all...\" He lowered his voice, preventing\nthe soldiers watching them from hearing what more he said. \"You just found out\ntoday that there's an evil inside of me I can't control... You may suffer the\npain of loss, but I suffer the horror of having two identities... and the other\none is nothing like me.\"\n            Vinge clearly was struggling to find\na retort, but the words died on his tongue. For a moment, there was only\nsilence between them, until Volcan raised his hands and placed both of them on\nVinge's shoulders. \"We'll find him again, Vinge,\" stated Volcan. \"No matter how\nlong it takes; he has to emerge again eventually, and when he does, we'll be\nthere, and I will help you get your\nfather back. That's a promise.\"\n            Vinge's expression softened, his\neyebrows reshaping themselves to a sadder expression. Suddenly, the ice phoenix\nbegan to slip from Volcan's arms, feeling suddenly heavier; Volcan promptly\ncaught him before he could fall over, and gently lowered him down to sit on the\nrubble. \"Hey, you alright?\"\n            \"I'm just...\" Vinge returned, weakly.\n\"So... tired.\"\n            Volcan gave his friend a weak smile,\nand after letting him rest for a moment, he helped Vinge back to his feet. \"Go\nhome, Vinge,\" he insisted. \"Take as much time as you need, but right now I\nthink that's the best place for you.\" \n            Vinge blinked at him. \"But I'm\nsupposed to stay near you until that court order expires...\"\n            \"What they won't know won't hurt\nthem,\" said Volcan. \"For now, I think it's best you deal with this your own\nway.\" He stepped aside for the ice phoenix, gesturing towards the door. \"Just\ndon't do anything reckless that'll make me have to come after you, alright?\"\n            Vinge returned the weak smile, and\nshook his head at Volcan. \"No... I won't do that...\" He promised. \"Thank you,\nVolcan.\"\n            With that, the ice phoenix began to\ndepart, slowly crossing the room to the door, which opened for him and allowed\nhim to pass through. He looked over his shoulder at Volcan briefly, before\nturning away and continuing down the corridor, the door closing behind him.\n            Rikyuu and Ayane approached Volcan,\nwho never took his eyes off the door even as they spoke to him. \"You handled\nthat very well, Volcan,\" said Ayane.\n            The phoenix exhaled a long sigh. \"I\njust wish I could do more for him,\" he stated, turning his gaze to the rubble\nbehind him. \"The I.T.O.U.E got away with his father; we were too slow... I still\nfeel like I failed him.\"\n            Rikyuu clapped Volcan on the\nshoulder. \"Hey, like you said, we'll find him again,\" he reminded the phoenix.\n\"Rex can't hide forever; eventually, he'll slip up, and the minute he does\nwe'll be on him like a fly on a compost heap.\"\n            Volcan allowed himself a small smile\nat the dragon. Then, turned his gaze as he heard footsteps approaching, seeing\nCaptain Ford stepping up to him; the soldier dog seemed to have relaxed any\ncontempt for Volcan's presence after seeing him handle one of his teammates so\nwell, and spoke softly to him.\n            \"I'd say you fellows have earned a\nrest,\" he said. \"We can take things from here.\"\n            Volcan nodded. \"We leave it in your\nhands then,\" he said, and turned back to the two dragons. \"Come on guys... let's\ngo home; it's been a long day for us\nall.\"\n            \"What about Vinge?\" Ayane asked as\nthey began to depart. \"Should we really leave him all by himself?\"\n            \"We have to let him cope in his own\nway,\" replied Volcan. \"For now, that's the best thing we can do for him.\"\n \n            ~~~~~\n \n            (Play 'Memories' or 'Birth of Love' by\nBrunuhVille on Youtube)\n \nThe smell of Lavender filled the room as Vinge\nseated himself on his knees, eyes shut and hands on his lap as he worked to\nclear his mind, trying to set his heart at ease. The pain had returned once\nmore, greater than ever now that he knew his father was still alive, and forced\nto continue to endure whatever horrors the I.T.O.U.E inflicted on him in their\nso-called pursuit of purity... the thought made him sick, and he struggled not to\nkeel over and retch on his carpet, taking in a deep breath of the incense burning\nbefore him, letting its refreshing smell fill his nostrils, the smell of the\nlavender helping to alleviate his tension.\nBut it wasn't enough. Still, Vinge could feel the\ntears trying to force their way to the surface, no matter how hard he fought against\nthem. He didn't want to let them out; he didn't want to feel weak... but the pain\nwas just too much this time. Before long, they flowed from his eyes, travelling\ndown his face until they reached the tip of his beak, dripping onto his legs\nbelow. Still, he continued to fight, trying to stay strong for the memory of\nhis father...\nHe barely heard footsteps entering the room; looking\nup in alarm and half-expecting an attack, he was already raising his hand to\nform an ice spike, but stopped immediately when he saw the green eyed snow\nleopard staring back at him. He blinked in confusion for a moment as he\nrecognized the face. \"Yurui?\" He asked, and quickly looked away, knowing there\nwere still tears on his face. \"I'm... sorry, I didn't hear you come in.\"\n\"I... I didn't want to startle you,\" she returned,\nsoftly. \"Kind of failed there, didn't I?\"\nVinge forced a small smirk. \"Kind of...\" He asked. \"So\nuh... what brings you all the way out here?\"\n\"I came to see you, of course,\" returned Yurui,\nstepping over and kneeling down at his side. \"I heard about what happened at\nthe base... I'm sorry you didn't save your father.\"\nVinge's heart stung at the mention of his father,\nbut he didn't let it show. \"It's... only a setback,\" he said, pretending not to\ncare as he didn't look at her, refusing to let her see his face. \"We'll find\nhim... my father's strong; much stronger than me. We'll find him...\"\nHe felt Yurui's paw gently touch his face, and\nturned his gaze to meet hers. He didn't resist, even though he wanted to... her\npresence was soothing, and he didn't want to do anything that might chase her\noff. His eyes met hers, the emerald green eyes of the leopard showing a sense\nof sympathy in them. He knew she could see his tear-stained cheeks and how his\neyes had turned slightly pink from crying.\nIn her eyes, he saw himself... his reflection in her\nsoft gaze, and remembered that she was much like him... no, worse than him. Yurui\nhad no identity, being a creation of science and genetic engineering; she was a\nlost soul, like him, but she was on her own from the very beginning. She had no\nparents at all to search for; Vinge had his mother, and now knew his father\nstill lived, waiting to be rescued. She had only her friends to call family,\ndespite how short a time she had known them... something Vinge realized he\nhimself might've been taking for granted.\nAs he watched, she moved her second paw to his other\ncheek, then slid them around behind his neck, pulling him towards her. After\nseveral long seconds, his head was resting on her chest, hearing the beating of\nher heart beneath her fur and flesh. It was a strong heart... but to Vinge, it\nfelt almost as if his own were ready to stop as the snow leopard embraced him.\nHe had never felt like this before; he felt his tension ease, and a warmth\ninside of him he couldn't describe; it wasn't the kind of warmth that would do\nhim harm, but it was like his heart was finally beginning to mend after so many\nyears of being broken...\nThe ice phoenix could not hold it back anymore...\nHis body was shaking, the tears streaming from his\neyes as he wrapped his arms around Yurui, his sobs rising in his throat until\nthey escaped through his beak. She kissed the top of his head before resting\nher own on his crown, holding him tightly against her as he finally allowed his\nemotions to surface, releasing the pain he had held within for so long. It hurt\nmore than ever now... but as he lay there in the arms of the snow leopard, it was\nfinally beginning to fade away, and the scars were now healing...\n \n \n \n            Epilogue: The Question of One's Soul\n \n          Volcan just could not get it out of his mind...\n            What had happened to him, when he\nhad somehow combined with the evil half of his soul, transforming into a\ncompletely new elemental; what was that power he had discovered? And\nfurthermore, what did it mean for him and his doppleganger, who now the phoenix\nswore he could almost hear him cackling at the back of his mind, as if some\ngreat new ambition had found its way into the evil one.\n            The power he had gained had allowed\nhim and his friends to defeat Jacob Rex's ultimate weapon, but Volcan could not\ntap into the energy again after it had left his body. Was it some kind of\nfluke; something that would happen only once? And what did it mean for his\ndoppleganger, whom he had almost lost control of his own body too when he had\nbegun to revert back to normal...\n            Volcan could feel the presence of\nhis evil side more than ever now. He could only wonder what it would mean for\nhim -and those he cared about, in the future...\n"}