• tab The incessant beeping of the com unit halted as Pyra answered the call, “Pyra Faolan speaking, what's up?” She sighed as the voice of the Academy Headmaster’s secretary came over the com, “Good morning Pyra. I have orders from the boss. A hatchling torched a village in sector gamma, and the Imperial Army probably has an illegal hunter-killer unit in the area.”
    tab “Let me guess. He wants me to go in and pull it out before they kill it?”
    tab “That’s the gist of it.”
    tab “Fine... I'll do it.”
    tab “I knew you would. Oh, and Pyra.”
    tab “Hmm?”
    tab “The medics have a hard enough time reassembling the hatchlings that Bast brings in. Try to bring it back in one piece this time, okay?
    tab “Fine....”
    tab Pyra ended the conversation by tapping the com unit on the stone wall. “They always call me on my day off...” she sighed. She looked out the window, gauged the direction in which she saw the pillar of fire, changed a few numbers on her com unit, and placed a call to the nearest flight tower.
    A deep voice with a heavy accent answered the call, “Flight tower Gamma, Operator Gren speaking.” Pyra smiled, she knew this operator.
    :Tab:“Gren, this is Pyra, I need to use a flight pad. The Headmaster just dropped a new order on me.”
    tab “Hello Pyra! Hang on one second...” She could hear him typing over the com. “There we go; flight pad thirty-four is clear.”
    tab “You have anything closer to the sky?”
    tab “Sorry comrade. The ambassadors to the Great Arc booked everything from the tenth floor on up.”
    Pyra sighed. “Thanks Gren, I'll be there in a bit."
    tab “No problem, comrade.”
    tab Pyra looked over at a set of three armor stands near the window. The armor on the stands were actually parts of a triple layered suit that could be worn separately, or all together. Stopping in front of the lightest layer, she decided to wear the medium one too. “You never know what could happen on even the most routine of missions.” She thought. After donning her blood-red armor, Pyra walked over to a metal rack bristling with an assortment of weapons attached to the opposite wall. She played her fingers across all the weapons before picking out a couple of long, double-bladed heavy cavalry swords; her weapon of choice. The swords had an extended one-and-a-half foot grip with a circular hilt and a five foot straight double-edge blade on both ends. After tying the grips together she rested them on her shoulder, and with weapons and armor ready she opened her door and stepped into the hall.
    tab The halls in the Elite's quarters were quiet and sparsely populated as Pyra made her way to the stairwell leading down. She greeted her fellow soldiers who were awake for early training and sympathetically patted the shoulders of the happily tired newcomers who had passed the infamous year-long Elite initiation test to gain the rank of Elite first class. Descending into the Warrior and Guardian class quarters, she walked between straight lines of bright-eyed underclassmen - who saluted her as she passed them - wearing the crisp grey uniforms of soldiers who have not yet been drafted. Marked only with their ranks, silver arcs and chevrons on their shoulders, they were on their way to grueling, early morning training sessions. Some of which she would be teaching when she returned from her mission.
    tab Descending yet another flight of stairs, Pyra entered the Fledgling Quarters. Compared to the cleanliness and order of the previous floor, the Fledgling Quarters looked as if a quiet hurricane had just passed through, leaving mobs of sleepy-eyed underclassmen milling around and uncertain of just what to do. Pyra had to push her way through the Fledglings (their instructors tried unsuccessfully to clear a path for her) to reach the final set of stairs leading onto the ground floor.
    tab Passing through double doors at the end of a large dining room, Pyra entered the academy kitchens. She snatched a few things to eat off of the various metal shelves while nodding greetings to the student chefs she didn’t know, and skillfully dodged around the master chefs who were too busy with the morning’s breakfast to be bothered. Exiting the kitchens through a service door, she entered the large entry chamber of the academy, where the single-file lines of Fifth Class Guardians leaving on their year-long Elite initiation test blocked the main entrance. Instead of using her higher rank to interrupt the ceremony (like most Elite Class dragons) and leaving through the massive double doors that served as the main entrance to the Academy, Pyra took a small, secret, flight of stairs down to a student-built, Elite rank only subway. She propped her swords against the wall and stood by a nearby bench to wait for the next train to arrive. A few minuets later, a polished silver train with a red stripe running down the center pulled into the station.
    tab The double doors hissed open and she stepped up into the passenger hold, pausing a moment when she noticed that there was only one other passenger in this section of the train. A male black dragon sat on a bench opposite the doors with a book held in front of his face. His hands were covering the book’s title. “No wonder this car is empty, black dragons are known for their violent personalities…” Pyra thought. He was wearing a matching set of vest and pants made of a flexible blue-green metal. She recognized it as fused dragon scales. “I hope he took those from Rogues…” She thought.
    tab The train began moving again. Pyra grabbed an overhanging safety loop as it picked up speed. She attached her cavalry blades to the only empty space on a nearby weapon rack. A large assortment of weapons ranging from knives to spears decorated all the other weapon racks in the car. One of the spears caught her attention: a serrated scimitar with a four foot blade and twelve foot braided metal handle, but it wasn’t the size that drew her eyes. It was the shifting red designs on the blade that told her the identity of the black dragon. The dragon in question flipped another page and chuckled. Pyra let go of the loop and moved next to him, taking hold of another loop. She would have preferred to sit, but all the benches were occupied by quivers full of massive crossbow bolts. The actual crossbow (Pyra noticed that it was actually a large arbalest), having no place on the weapon racks, was suspended in midair near one of the ends of the car.
    tab The black dragon looked up from his novel, slashes of silver scars cut stitches across his face. His eyes were a darker shade of red than Pyra’s eyes; a common trait only found in black dragons. Two rows of flexible gold spikes lay flat against his skull in a ‘V’ shape. The extreme ends of the ‘V’ curled around the back of his head and stopped just below his lips. Both the color and position of the spikes were also traits only found in black dragons. He picked up the quivers on Pyra's seat without looking away from his book and tossed them at another pile of quivers on a bench opposite her. He motioned for her to sit.
    tab The black dragon spoke. His voice was a deep purr that filled the train car. “Where are they sending you this time Faolan?”
    tab “Hatchling duty.” Pyra said as she sat.
    tab “Ah, is the great Pyra Faolan too weak to go on more important missions?”
    tab “Shut up! At least I do a better job of it.”
    tab The black dragon shrugged, flipped a page, then said, “The little b*****d tried to torch me. He should be thankful that I only removed his limbs.”
    “You know the medics hate it when you do that.”
    “That’s one of the reasons why I do it.” He closed the book softly as he turned to face her. Pyra noted the title, Their Blood Runs Red, a philosophy book about humans written by a famous dragon berserker, Bast Grummar. Pyra grinned and asked him, “Do you get a kick out of reading your own books, Bast?”
    Bast blinked, “It gives me something to do.”
    “I see. So where are they sending you?”
    He opened his book again as he spoke, “Guard duty, sector forty-five. I’m leaving from Rho.”
    tab A woman’s voice came over the train’s P.A. system, “Now stopping at flight tower Beta. All passengers please stay away from opening doors. Have a nice day!”
    tab Pyra lightly punched Bast's shoulder, “Is my teacher, the great Bast Grummar, growing weak in his old age?”
    Bast gestured at the red markings on the spear as the train stopped, “My last mission filled my kill quota.”
    tab “I see. I guess you can take it easy then. Sector forty-five is a nice place, it being so close to the sea and all. Open sky for as far as you can see!”
    tab He flipped a page, “I guess, but it could have been better though.”
    Pyra crossed her arms and leaned against the wall of the train. “How's that?” Bast blinked slowly and stretched an arm out parallel to the ground, three gold blades appeared between his knuckles then retracted into his scales. “Sector seventy-three.” He stated calmly. Pyra straightened with a look of shock. “The Hell Hole? You meant worse right?” Bast’s toothy grin looked like something you'd see in a book about demons. The train started to move again. He chuckled, “No, I meant better.” Pyra shook her head and smiled, “Your bloodthirsty nature is going to get you into some serious trouble someday, Bast.”
    tab “And your tendency to ‘over sleep’ on important days won’t?”
    tab “Not if I can help it.”
    tab They both laughed. A woman’s voice came over the train P.A. system, “Now stopping at Flight Tower Gamma. All passengers please stay away from opening doors. Have a nice day!” Pyra walked over to the doors. “Well, this is my stop. I'll see you when you return.” She stepped off the train and looked back as Bast tossed her weapons after her, shouting, “Rip its arms off if it doesn't cooperate!”
    Pyra caught the blades and laughed as she walked off of the platform and up the steps into the base of the tower. She contacted Gren again, “Hey Gren, I’m here.”
    tab “Okay. Flight pad thirty-four is still clear, access code is seven eight three eight. Oh, and I left a present for you on the pad. I hope you like it. Have a nice flight comrade!”
    tab “Thanks Gren.”
    tab Pyra walked up to a nearby door and pushed a button on the wall. The door hissed up, revealing a small, metallic, cylindrical room. She stepped in and the door hissed shut behind her. A panel of buttons near the door lit up. She pushed the one for the ninth floor. The room hummed, and a few seconds later the door hissed open again, revealing a hub-shaped room with seven doors. Four led to flight pads, the other three were elevators. She walked over to the door labeled “34” and tapped the access code into a pad of numbers on the wall. The door opened inwards and up, exposing a dark room. She walked to a control panel in the center and pressed a button to close the door. She took a second look at the panel and picked up a small cylindrical object. The door silently closed and locked, plunging the room into darkness. A cyan ring of light circling the floor glowed into life. She com’d Gren. “Hey Gren, what is this present? Some type of grenade or something?”
    tab Gren laughed, “No, comrade. It’s a storage device!”
    tab Pyra turned the cylinder around in her hands. “Well, it’s not much use to me. It doesn’t look like it can hold much.”
    tab Gren laughed again, “Looks can be deceiving! Press the pressure pads in the center then touch your blades to the glowing end.”
    tab She touched the pads, causing one end of the cylinder to light up. She touched her blades to it. The blades turned white and disappeared. Pyra dropped the cylinder in surprise, “Bloody hells! What did you do to my cavalry blades?!” She shouted.
    tab She could hear the smile in Gren’s voice, “I told you, comrade. It’s a storage device!”
    tab “You mean…”
    tab “Correct.”
    tab “Really?”
    tab “Yes.”
    tab “This is great, Gren! I don’t have to plan individual missions anymore! When did you make this?!”
    tab “When I had the time. The rest of the squad should be getting one next time I see them.”
    tab “Okay! I’ll be taking off now.”
    tab “Have a nice flight, comrade!”
    tab The dome opened iris fashion. A dark sky speckled with stars spanned from horizon to horizon. The floor of the room started to hum as energy built up inside of it. Pyra relaxed the muscles in her back and then tensed them all at once, causing her wings to explode from her back. She looked into the cloudless sky. “Clear night for a flight...” she thought. She crouched and pulled a lever on the base of the control panel. The platform tilted, she was now at a 45 degree angle to the tower. Numbers appeared on a screen, counting down from ten. When zero was displayed, a great burst of air exploded from the floor, launching Pyra into the sky.