"Hey, ki- Zesiro- you're not going to... and there he goes." John pauses for just a moment, looking after the ones that ran off towards the castle, then up at the dilapidated, ruined, crumbling, and downright shoddily constructed castle before deciding that he had things he would rather do instead of entering the structure. Judging from the direction he began to run in, one of those things was apparently being eaten and/or roasted alive by a dragon.

As John drew level with Zesiro, he held out a hand. "Stunner" he grunted, trying to do the rather tricky act of zooming in on the dragon with his cybernetic while also not tripping over anyone or falling into a hole. "I'll play decoy. If they managed to bail, you get your people out. Meet you back at the castle."

once they were outside, Dimitri was reminded yet again that he hated the cold. This world was an oddity in itself that was for sure as he gawked at the scene before him. Flying metal contraptions and dragons? The dragon was the least strange thing he had seen so far, having seen similar beasts in passing back on Temperance. As far as he knew the great scaled beasts of the skies back home, were not hostile and considered almost like a deity, Their vast life span telling tails of infinite knowledge and intelligence while simultaneously commanding respect. The origins of the dragons back home were older than the risen continents and these ones had grown docile over the centuries.

In actual fact his aerial companion was similar to its draconian counterpart. Far smaller than any dragon mind you but they bared similar features. The Windstriders of the Eastern Ridges were quite gentle once they got to know you but would fight if threatened.

Stranger to Dimitri was the metal vehicle the dragon was currently chewing on and also the metallic weapons that William and Dzel were carrying. He had not seen them actually do anything and he was curious to see them in action.

This dragon was not friendly. It seemed the complete opposite of what Dimitri was used to. Aggressive and powerful, a manifestation of pure rage it seemed as he watched what little light was left reflect in its jagged scales. it watched the gouts of flames as they burst from the dragon and the metal vehicle lodged in its great maw.

He watched Dzel as she readied her weapon then asked William if it would hurt the dragon. The monk was unsure what William thought of this dragon in any case, but Dzel seemed not to be afraid of it. no wonder to Dimitri. He figured the woman had nerves of steel anyway. He lifted Herbert to his feet and steadied him holding his gaze "I guess this isn't something you're used to seeing huh? I say we head down the pathway. anywhere seems better than in front of this creature right now."
he then called to Dzel

"I think we should leave Dzel. Down the pathway and hopefully towards the base of this cursed mountain. Unless you're certain that metal weapon will put the beast down... though considering its size compared to the dragons well I'd just hate to upset it further given the circumstances laid before us."

A moment after Vata had asked why they're still sticking around here, when a woman dressed similarly to Twain entered the room, with someone following behind her. Twain and the newcomer obviously knew each other, since they didn't ask for each other's name. The conversation between the two produced some new questions, but also revealed a bit to Vata. Neither Twain nor the woman knew exactly what had happened here, but they were intent on figuring it out. The woman stated something was really bad here, but from the way she said it, Vata assumed she meant something other than the bloody spectacle behind him.

Vata figured that it would probably be best at this point if he just let Twain and his companions do their work, and leave any additional questions for when they finally get out of this accursed place. Until then, he decided, all he could do is to wait nervously, and hope that the situation doesn't worsen.

Charles, Jon, and whoever else followed Zesiro…

Zesiro’s mouth was still agape. “Uh… Sure.” He passed the phaser to Jon without any fuss. He was not a combat specialist, nor would he have felt very good about leaving anyone unarmed against… that thing… Even if Jon wound up turning against him, Zesiro was pretty sure he had a better chance against Jon than the... Dragon...

Herbert, Will, Ryann, Dimitri

Dzel looked toward Dimitri. She nodded, this seemed to be a wise plan. She crossed to the entrance of the tunnel they had just come from, she touched the ‘trigger’ of the weapon just as William had shown her. She pointed it toward the dragon, the stance was incorrect, but, might do the trick. “Go then, quickly, before it sees us. I will follow.” If the group did decide to go into the castle and tunnels below, she would make sure she was the last one through.

After extensively reading through the files multiple times Charles knew exactly who the person standing before him was. Well he knew one of them, as for the other he hadn’t the foggiest. Which in his line of work meant he wasn’t doing a good enough job.

“I hate to be rude but.” Charles then took a moment to look back up at the dragon eating away at the plane. “I think that it’s quiet obvious that a dragon happened.”

A few other members of TIGER had taken Charles’ lead in terms of gathering up their equipment and converging rapidly to one another. Already they were discussing between one another with very few words to formulate some sort of plan and strategy on what to do next. Frankly Charles hoped that at some point they would include him in what it was they were doing.

“With that out of the way I’m Charles. I was scheduled to be transferred to team MERCY earlier, however something cropped up so it was decided that I would be dropped off by TIGER. Which lead us to where we are now currently.” This was his very bare summary of events up to the moment.

“And you are Zesiro.” It was more of a statement than a question. “Pleasure to meet you. I would shake your hand but unfortunately my hands are a bit full. In both senses of the word I might add.”

“And you might be?” Charles addressed the stranger as Zesiro handed them a very odd looking gun.

XIII followed the woman to the castle. As he got closer, a feeling of dread started to wash over him. Something was terribly wrong with the castle. The strange bodies he saw along the way did nothing to dismiss the feeling. Quickly, he and the woman made it to the castle and the altar room inside. The dread was almost palpable in this place. It was close to what he felt before he and his team had entered their base after it had been attacked.

XIII shook his head free of the thought. Now wasn't the time for such thoughts. He idly listened to the conversation between the woman and one of the people in the room. When the woman said that she didn't know his name, he chuckled despite the scene around them. It was slightly warmer inside the castle, so XIII had a little more control over his shivering and he could talk without stuttering.

"If you knew what my name was, I'd be surprised, considering I don't even know what it is. You can call me XIII, or X if you want. I should mention that there is what looks like a dragon outside attacking a plane." XIII looked at the man the woman was talking to. "I assume you're Zesiro's brother. He went to go see if anyone had made it out of the plane. I would have helped but I can't do anything in this cold."

VATA & XIII

"Yup. That's me." Twain approached XII holding out a hand for him to shake. "I'm Twain. Nice to meet-ya." He smiled a large crooked smile. He had blue eyes that twinkled with wisdom and mischief.

"A plane...?" Twain and the others had heard the racket, but had not seen the dragon nor the plane. "Shit. That would be TIGER!." He ran his hands through his long salt-and-sand hair.

"Gemma." He shot to the girl. "We might not have much time. Look around for anything that looks important, bag and tag... I want the chalk, pictures of any runes left behind, anything else wierd."

He turned back to XII, Vata, and Alexander. "We are going to hitch a ride home with TIGER. I'd like you all to come with us. I know you don't remember what happened, but something important happened here. Something bad." He looked at the body on the alter, she was still covered in a strangers coat. "You might be able to help us figure it out, and we can defiantly help you get out of here alive. What do you say guys?"

Charles & John

"That's John. Found him here..." Zesiro had handed John back his phaser. Zesiro knew most of the members of TIGER, their faces if not their names. The two teams crossed paths quite often, sometimes on missions, sometimes at HQ.

"I'm going to go off and distract the dragon!" John declared, and took off into the snow.

"What the fuck?" Zesiro exclaimed but it was too late.

John was running fired his weapon at the big red beast.

The dragon, with fire and molten metal dripping from between its teeth, looked up as the tiny beams of light touched its scales. Cocking its head to one side, then looking for the source of the irritant.

"Ah... Nice knowing you John! Let's get the fuck out of here..." Zesiro turned toward the castle.

To Vata's surprise, Twain turned from his investigation of the room and told the people there about something called "tiger." He had no idea what that was, but he guessed it had nothing to do with the animal. What Zesiro said after that was something that he could only have dreamed of earlier, when he woke up in the snow. A bit of the uneasiness he was feeling disappeared, and a small sliver of hope started to form. The gristly scene that he was trying not to think about no longer seemed as imposing, and the cold, barren wilderness that lay beyond the walls of the castle didn't seem like it was as much of a threat anymore. For the first time today, things were looking up. All he had to do was agree to help Twain with figuring out whatever it was that happened here.

"I gladly accept your offer, as I would like nothing more than to just get away from this place. I'm not sure what help I could be to your cause, but if it means finding out what happened to some of us here, I will do what I can."

Vata & XIII

"Great!" Twain smiled wide. "Wanna help? Hold this open!" Twain reached into a pocket and drew out a large black bag. He gave the bag to Vata and then began to scour the floor. It was like watching a rat sort through garbage. Twain was mostly picking up bones, some rocks, random items on the ground. He would inspect each, some quickly, some he sniffed before tossing them in the black bag. It seemed like a careless way to treat evidence... but... Twain was in a hurry, after all.

"You!" Twain shot a glance over to Alexavier, whom had remained rather quiet this whole time. "You and lucky-number see what you can do about the body on the alter. Ideally, we'd like to take it with us." Twain seemed to assume that because Vata had accepted his offer, the others did too.

Charles wished John, who he had met for the first and very likely the last time, the very best of luck in his endeavour.

“What an eccentric person.” Charles mused aloud, watching John charge off to his certain death. “And a very interesting weapon.” He cocked his head to the side slightly and squinted to try and exam it a bit better. Not that it helped.

“Certainly not a standard sort from the look of it. Modified? 3D printed? Both possibilities although looks more like a Taser than a gun…” He realised he was thinking aloud and quickly clammed his mouth shut.

But of course the little questions still rattled around somewhere in his head making sure to later remind him about finding their answers. Standing up straight again, with such a force he nearly jumped, Charles redirected his attention to the matter at hand.

“Yes, lets.” He quickly followed after Zesiro and the rest of TIGER.

“Hopefully the castle should give us some space to set up and possibly form some sort of ‘command centre’ or at least some sort of base of operations. Or at the very least a place where we can all rendezvous at some point.”

“By the way if I might ask for an overview of the current situation at the soonest possible moment?” Charles worked hard to keep up with Zesiro in the snow with the cases weighing him down. “Only that, to be honest, all I was told was that the situation was one that would greatly upset the international community.” Charles then cast a glance back at the dragon which, thankfully, still had yet to pay the group any attention.

“And while I do agree that a dragon is indeed quite a large concern, I mean honestly look at the size of that thing it could quite literally use any of us for a toothpick after it’s finished its meal. But I must digress that dealing with a dragon is not quite the thing that, at least in my experience, that TRIDENT deals with on a day to day basis.”

“Dragon population control seems more like a local government thing in my book.” Charles then added with a chuckle.

John ran across around over and between frozen rubble, moving clockwise around the castle. Within moments of leaving Charles and Zesiro he had cracked the palm stunner open, and with a practiced hand and swiftness that belied the frigid air had removed a tiny chip from its slot and closed the weapon tight. Linking his cybernetic with the device, he quickly disabled the safety and began to adjust the power settings.

John, not being stupid, had planned to not shoot the dragon unless it had noticed someone else, preferably only after he had hidden away somewhere; unfortunately for him, the dragon was rather perceptive, and no sooner was John's stunner back online than the dragon had turned its attention to the group.

John raised his weapon, carefully sighted on the dragon's head, and pulled the trigger. In a single instant an invisible beam ionized a stream of air between the weapon and the target and a bolt of lightning surged through the air, delivering 600mA directly to the skull. Enough to kill a man, but to the dragon, it appeared to be little more than a nuisance. John studied the dragon for a brief moment, and then grimly dialed up the voltage. 38 shots left, give or take a dozen.

Odds were good he wouldn't find a lethal frequency before then, but with a flying target he didn't need it. If he could just get a voltage strong enough to get through its skin then that should be enough. Disrupt its flight muscles long enough, and it should drop out of the sky.

Once again, lightning stabbed the sky. 37 left.

Vata held the bag awkwardly as Twain threw things into it, trying to not think too hard about what was going into it. As he tried to ignore that Twain had put what looked just like a human bone into a bag, he thought about what XIII and Twain had just said. They both mentioned something called a "plane," and XIII said that there was a "dragon" attacking it. He had heard of something called a "dragon" before, and he had a rough idea of what that could be, but he had never heard of a "plane" before, at least, not in the way they were using it. He had never heard the word used before as the name of a physical object, but rather, as an abstract concept used in art and mathematics. While it did not seem like a good time to ask questions, Vata figured this was something he probably needed to know.

"Uh...what exactly is a plane?"

“Dragon…” Herbert echoed, softer than a whisper. He was vaguely aware of his hands going numb and his clothes soaking through as he sat in the snow. Flecks of white were already trying to bury him under a fresh sheet.

If Herbert had not retreated fair into his mind from the rationality and logic, functioning on a much more basic level, he would certainly have broken. A creature of fairy tale and legend displayed its sheer power and actuality right before his eyes. The plane was now falling ribbons of metal and flames.

The cold lessened, and Herbert realised he was being pulled to his feet by Dmitri.

“You would be correct in your guessing,” Herbert said through chattering teeth. It would only catch up with Herbert’s mind later that this heavily implied Dmitri was used to such a sight.

Dmitri’s gaze was steady and held none of the fear he saw reflected in his own. It calmed him; part of him, but in parts of his mind locked away, other feelings fought to be felt. Envy of such collectedness. Anger at his apathy. One part found his reaction out of place, and deadly humorous. Another wondered if there was something wrong with the monk’s brain, and wanted nothing more than to dissect it.

Herbert stared at his hands. They were red and swollen, and on them rested translucent crystals of ice and snow sending tiny rivulets down their contours. He wondered if he would get frostbite. He wondered what frostbite felt like.

“Down a mountain in snow, or waiting to starve inside an unsound ruin to starve to death. I do not like either option.”

@Arty Fox

Zesiro forced his feet through the snow. "Whelp... We were assigned to find MOON, you might not have heard of them. They are another TRIDENT team, like MERCY and TIGER, but the specialize in top-secret-undercover-investigations..." Zesrio didn't know how much Charles had been briefed already.

"Either they got in too deep, or, got dead. They have been absent too long. Long enough to worry over. Sent us after 'em."

They were getting close to the castle, Zesiro had to start avoiding the broken bits of castle and piles of flame. The source of the strange flame was no longer a mystery. Had the dragon burned through everything? Destroyed all evidence? Where the hell did it come from? No time for questions... He swallowed hard and continued to explain.

"Trail lead us to a city south of here when Gemma felt a... Disturbance in the force... Radiation rlare... Whatever. We thought it might be related. Even if it wasn't it was worth investigating. So we trudged up this damn forsaken mountain."

"We split up to cover more ground. I found these guys... like Mr. Phaser over there... They all seem to have amnesia, or their all lying. I'm not sure. We have not really had any time to properly interview or interrogate anyone. Or collect any evidence..."

"We had called TIGER to let them know our location in case we needed back up. Twain told them to stand down until called... Looks like Roz didn't listen. That's no surprise." The casual use of the nickname, Roz, would confirm that Rozalind, the 'Den Mother' of TIGER, had indeed worked closely with Zesiro in the past. He spoke of her with much more familiar inflection than he had heard anyone in TIGER speak of her. They regarded her with respect, reverence, and a touch of fear. Zesiro didn't fear or revere her. He rolled his eyes as he spoke her nickname.

"Now we are high tailing it back. Team-leader-Twain should be in this thing somewhere..."

@The Bearded One

The dragon turned its head upward, drops of molten metal and fire fell from its mouth like lethal drool. It took into the air, the energy from the weapon dashing across its scales, rattling its being. It did not fall. It shrieked in pain, it was the loudest and highest pitch sound the beast had made yet. The snow on the mountain tops rumbled, somewhere far away there was an avalanche, the people in the nearby cities and towns heard it, or, felt very uncomfortable for no good reason...

It went up... up... circling up up up... trying to get out of range, trying to get away from the thing which caused its pain.

@Viridity

Twain regarded Vata, only looking concerned for a second before launching into a rather cheerful explanation@jdh97. "Erm... A plane is a big machine with wings. It takes you up into the air! Some are small and just carry one or two people, some are really big and can carry... I dunno... hundreds of people. TIGER I think has some sort of modified cargo plane... She has... I dunno... Thirty on her team? I'm not sure, I like to nap during the real important meetings."

@jdh97

As the others began to rush down the tunnel, Herbert hesitated, he was not as alone as he seemed.

Bisbee, whom had been quite quiet for quite some time, made the softest of *click-clacks* in Herbert's ear and pressed its beak behind his ear. That boney nose was colder than the air around them. What would have been an affectionate gesture by any living pet was unsettling when performed by the impossible bird.

*click-clickity-clack* Louder now, more urgent. It was a warning. Herbert and Bisbee were not alone...

The Legion, being an intergalactic peace keeping force, was very focused on adaptability, and they dealt in generalities rather than specifics- while another military might have given training in case of dragon attack, Legion training was a series of puzzle peices that could be put together to form something rather like an anti-dragon strategy.

The specific training modules John was incorporating had long complicated names formed of chains of numbers and letters, but John was thinking affectionately of them as "What to do about big flying things" "tactics for the evacuation of civilians when outgunned" and "So you're being attacked by endangered wildlife".

Basically, it broke down to this- keep in cover when possible, stop the enemy from being interested in the 'civilians' and use behavior conditioning techniques to your advantage.

John kept firing at the dragon, slowing down his shots the farther away it got. Once it got to a comfortable distance he stopped, only lighting the beast up again when it started to move closer. John slowed his pace, then began to walk slowly back towards the ruined castle, keeping sure to keep the dragon in his sights as he went.

“Well I’m afraid to say the last part may be partially my fault for the reason that I had stated previously.” Charles commented with a twinge of guilt. “However from the looks of it we have managed to recover most of the equipment that was in the plane.”

“Or at least a good portion of it.” He added after an appraising glance at the remaining members of TIGER behind them.

The rest of the journey back was (comparatively) uneventful apart from an indignant comment of “That’s not how fire works” from Charles after noticing how ferociously they burned. Even those that appeared to have burned their fuel to ashes were still pumping out tremendous amounts of heat for their size.

Unsurprisingly it wasn’t that much warmer inside the castle ruins. But it was less windy. Following Zesiros lead Charles climbed awkwardly over the piles of rubble and ducked under the collapsed pillars of a ceiling that hadn’t been around for some time.

But it wasn’t just broken stones and snow that threatened to trip Charles. A limb here and freshly burned body there made Charles wonder why he had chosen to have such a large lunch. However it didn’t stop him from taking notes and even one or two pictures with his camera. Mentally he measured them up trying to make a profile of who they might have been before their death. The majority of them were fully intact and looked normal but others were somewhat unsettling. Some had heads too large, some too small, others had too many limbs or none at all. Charles swore he even saw half a Mermaid hidden in the shadows. But the worst part for him was that none of the bodies looked as if their appearance was unnatural in anyway, as if they had simply grown like that like a puppy grows to be a Dog and a Child a grown person.

After slipping around a corner Charles found himself in what may have been a very large hall once upon a time, but that time had passed many years ago leaving it a hollow and empty save for the piles of snow creeping around the walls.

“Afternoon.” Charles chirped to both the normal and not-so-normal looking within.

@The Bearded One
Once it stopped feeling the pain, the dragon circled and came to perch on a high peak above the castle. It had sharp eyes that were fixed upon Johnathan. It was an intelligent creature, she knew where the pain had originated. She growled low in her throat. Little bits of snow shook loose about the dragon and began to tumble off the peak.

It blew fire into the air, a red stream of anger. Once, twice... Then the third blast, instead of into the open air, the dragon blew fire onto the mountain where it stood. The snow immediately began to melt. Evaporating into and melting into water that began to fall down the mountain in wet slushy clumps.

She, the dragon, knew the little creatures were no match for her. They were small, they were slow, they were weak. They better hurry if they wanted to survive her.

@Arty Fox

"Heya!" Twain was in the midst if he should bag-and-tag or leave behind a jawbone. He looked up at Charles, then did a double take.

"Hey It's the new guy!" He smiled and turned toward Gemma. "You've officially graduated from rookie status." She laughed half heatedly, then sat down to languish in a corner, she was feeling ill.

Keeping the mandible in hand Twain strode over to Charles. "Twain here. Put-er-there" He held out a hand to shake. Then he glanced at the members of TIGER as they filed in behind. "TIGER? Makes sense. Rozalind jumping the gun again." He shook his head.

"Good-to-see-ya-brother. Glad you didn't get eaten by a dragon. Or get frostbite." Zesiro muttered coming into the hall behind Charles. He looked over the unfamiliar faces and the alter with a frown. Twain ignored Zesiro.

"So, Charles, TIGER." Twain rubbed his hands together. "We were just packing up the evidence to take back to the lab... Some of you guys look like your in rough shape. Anyone need a Doctor?" Twain was, among other things, a doctor. "Rozalind catch up yet?"

"Haven't seen her." Zesiro answered, he stood next to Gemma now. "Not everyone made it out of the plane."

"What happened to the plane?"

"It got eaten by the dragon. Weren't you listening?"

"Oh. I thought you were being sarcastic. There's no such thing as dragons."

"Apparently that's a lie." Zesiro replied flatly.

Vata listened carefully to Twain's description of a "plane." He was fascinated by it, but Twain tried to make it sound so...normal. This was more like the sort of thing you would hear from the people investigating the ruins in the East. A metal thing that flies in the sky, capable of carrying not just several, but hundreds of people? Actually, wait. He had heard of this sort of thing before, but there was only one in existence, and it was much smaller than the sort of thing Twain was suggesting. It didn't sound anywhere near as comfortable either, and he hadn't heard many good things about the woman that owned it.

Vata noticed that he had been lost in thought, again. He seemed to have a bad habit of doing that, but when he wasn't in some sort of danger, it generally wasn't a bad thing. Sure, it could make some conversations a bit more awkward, but he had gotten some of his best ideas while not listening to someone. He noticed that there was someone unfamiliar in front of him, and tried to introduce himself while attempting to ignore what was in the now-heavy bag he was holding.

"Uh, hello. I don't think we've met. What's your name?"

After he shook Twain's hand, XIII made his way towards one of the many fires around the room. He needed to warm up or he'd get sick. Not that the carnage of the room helped. XIII had trouble keeping his dinner down as he looked around the room.

When Twain spoke up, asking him and some stranger to go see what could be done with the body at the altar, XIII nodded but stayed in place. A few more minutes and he'd be warm enough to do something.

XIII had finally warmed up when more people started showing up. He made his way towards the group gathering around. When Twain mentioned Tiger, XIII frowned in thought. Who were these people? It was a question that he made vocal.

"Who are you guys, anyway?"

"Stubborn thing, ain't you?" John muttered, slitting his eyes at the dragon. He reviewed his count; around 16 shots left- call it 7 at current levels, since he'd been raising both the voltage and current with every shot.

At this point, John decided that it was fairly unlikely that he'd hit a stun or kill threshold even using all the power he had left in one shot- even if he could get the stunner to reach that threshold without burning it out halfway through the delivery. He stops walking and squares himself against the dragon, steadying his feet at a shoulder width apart, then reaches down into his supply of pills and pops back a tablet of chalky courage.

John could see better than most animals, even with one human eye weighing him down, and was certain he saw better than the dragon. Looking up at the beast on its perch he could see a spark of what could be called... well, maybe not intelligence, but certainly cunning. An animal too smart to be scared away by punishing lightning, but not logical enough to move on to easier prey when it was harmed... and it could tell it was him that was the source of the pain- he could see it in the way it looked directly at him.

This, of course, changed things; though not as much as it would have if John hadn't spent the last few minutes shooting the damn thing. Normally, this would be the time to crack out the first contact protocols... However, seeing as he had been shooting at it and probably pissing it right off, counting out prime numbers and drawing Pythagorean's theorem would probably not be the most helpful thing to do.

Therefore, John drew what he thought of was a healthy compromise, and shot it again. As the beast roared a long loud roar to follow up its three bursts of flame, lightning lashed out between the small weapon and the forked tongue of the creature, cutting its intimidating roar short with a pained yelp. Then, sure that he had gotten the creature's full attention, John proceeded to do what in nature is the equivalent of giving a predator the middle finger- that is to say, he whipped out his 'self' and proceeded to piss in the dragon's direction. The stream, and John's steady glare lasted for about half a minute, and then he put his trousers back in place, turned smartly about, and began a brisk pace towards the castle. A brisk pace which soon evolved into a run.