Slayer x Pyre 1x1

[StarryKnights]

Sahara Cephres
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Sahara frowned when she read where they would be stationed. "Of course we get stuck baby sitting..." she sighed. Livia was right, it only figured... At least the research center was semi interesting, the so called secret weapon was being developed there, and the scale of the dragon that had escaped was housed there. That was Mai's project, meaning they would likely be taking the young scientist when they left. At the moment though, Livia was right. It was best to gather their gear and prepare to leave. "...Sounds like a plan Livia" Sahara said as she stood. "We'll meet up and find our hunter...I hear the guy is a bit of a loner...." That would make this either more interesting...or more boring. No dragon would be stupid enough to attack what had to be the most secure facility the organization had. There was zero chance of any sort of action so long as they were stationed there. 


She wondered how their veteran hunter would feel about the assignment. Sahara sighed and looked to Livia. "Let's get the gear and find our guy" There was no sense is putting it ff

Niko Medina and Sophie Stolts
​

Sophie took a seat in a chair and just looked around, this was way, way better than the shanty town. She hoped that they'd be able to hide out here, at least until it was safe for them to return home and to their lives. Sophie had no idea how long that would take, but if they got to hide here, Sophie wouldn't mind waiting. The pinging was quick to kill this good mood, as Sophie looked anxiously to Kaito as he pulled out the 


As the pinging grew louder and she established it wasn't her phone, she looked anxiously at Niko and Kaito. If someone was calling them, didn't that mean that they could maybe find them What if Tahra's program didn't work...?


Sophie eyed the device as Tahra hooked it up to her computer. She wasn't sure if this was a good idea...answering a call from a possible hunter. The fact Niko had a contact o the inside was news to the young dragon, the idea scared her. If this person decided to betray them, then they could find them. "Niko...just be careful...okay?" Sophie said, looking to her friend. Niko contemplated what to do for a moment, before approaching the computer, looking to the others he spoke. "...Just, stay off screen, alright guys?" He wasn't sure if Mai was alone, though he assumed she would be. She'd always been careful to cover her tracks. 


Niko sat in front of the screen and clicked the answer button. A window opened up, the image was static for a moment, before a grainy image of a young woman with dark hair, thick glasses and cold green eyes came into view. Niko arched an eyebrow. "...Mai?"

Mai Acantha
​

Mai blinked, her computer beeped in warning, alerting her to the encryption program her call was under. Someone was trying to track  her signal, and Mai wasn't having it. She typed rapidly, her fingers flying across the keyboard as she wrote out her code. The encryption was good, she assumed who ever was attempting to track her was the same person who had hacked into the tracking devices. It was impressive, but a bit on the crude side for Mai's taste. Rather than shut down the program, she fed it inaccurate information, her location was being pinged all around the world as Mai's signal bounced from tower to tower. It was better that way, Niko and his friends didn't need to know where she was. At the moment, she was sitting in her private quarters, waiting until she was being transported back to Twilight's Edge. She'd been called away to oversee the reveal of the trackers, but now that there had been a breach, Mai was returning to her facility, where she'd resume her work. 


Before she went back there, Mai wanted to try to talk to Niko...and his friend's she figured. Once she was back at the facility, it would be difficult, as their security was far better than her current location. 


Mai waited for the other line to pick up, tapping her finger against her keyboard. "Come on Niko..." she sighed. 


Just when she thought no one was going to respond, the window flickered, and then a grainy image of Niko came into focus. "Hello, Niko" Mai said, blinking. Niko inclined his head. "Mai". 


"I don't have a lot f time to talk, so let me cut to the chase. One of your friends have been identified, Kaito Iwasa. We've nearly completed his profile, so I suggest you be careful. The female is off the grid. I assume she is the one who is attempting to back track this transmission. I applaud your skills, the work on the trackers was...entertaining to say the least" Mai blinked. "With th trackers down, their sending out teams, cadets paired with expert hunters, to track you. They are flying blind as we have yet to decode the virus...and we never will if I have my way" 


Niko smirked, Mai was always a step ahead of the hunters, it helped to have a person on the inside. 


"Mai...I have a question for you" Mai cocked her head to the side. "I may have an answer". Niko leaned closer to the screen. "...A friend of mine...discovered that my scale may be in tact" Mai blinked. "I assume your friend went through head quarter's database to find such info" There was no way she got it from Mai's computers at the research center. "...It is..in tact that is. I've seen it myself" Niko's scale was indeed in tact, and behind so much security one would think the president was being help in that containment room. 

 

[pyreshadow]

Tahra Casey and Kaito Iwasa
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As Niko situated himself in the seat, Tahra knelt down next to him in a way that she wouldn't be on the screen but could still keep it in view herself. Kaito stayed where he was, although he was a bit nervous about Niko answering the call. He would have rather they not answer it at all even if it meant less information for them. It wasn't up to him though so all he could do was sit and hope for the best. Luckily, it seemed that the woman on the other end was someone that Niko did indeed know and it didn't seem like she had any ill intentions. A tsk from Tahra caused him to glance over at the redhead before he noticed the smirk on her face as she looked her phone over. Her gaze didn't stay there long before turning upwards to look at the woman on the screen as well. This Mai character was pretty good to be able to stop Tahra's tracking. When it was announced that Kaito had been almost fully identified, a heavy sigh left his lips before he thought of someone that could really get hurt because of this.


"Ma." The name left his lip as barely a whisper before he jumped out of his seat, cell in hand. He quickly dialed her number and walked to the other side of the room so he could talk to her quietly once she answered. Tahra watched him for a moment, seeing the slightly panicked look flash across his face followed by relief when whomever he was calling answered. Shrugging lightly, Tahra looked back to the screen with another smile when she heard she hadn't been identified. They wouldn't be able to either since Tahra never left a trace of herself anywhere. The woman was pretty clever, putting together that it was Tahra that was trying to track her as well as messing with the tracking devices. The woman seemed like she could be someone trustworthy if Niko was asking her about the scale already. Green eyes darted over to Sophie for a moment, only briefly before she slowly stood up and dusted off her pants. Then she moved to stand behind Niko so that she could be on the screen and lowered her head some to see better. Not close enough to Niko that it would make him uncomfortable, just enough to be seen.


"You like to assume a lot of things, don't you Mai? I thought scientists weren't supposed to assume anything." Tahra spoke in a teasing tone still, giving the woman a smile to show that she was just messing with her a little. Even if the assumptions were correct. In the background, she could hear Kaito starting to argue with someone on the phone about leaving town but she didn't pay it too much mind. "If that was really your HQ's security system, you need to have them fire the head of security because damn. That was one of the easiest things I've gotten in to in a while. But you, you're quite something being able to throw off my tracking algorithm like that. I like challenges." Tahra smiled a bit more mischievously as the implication was more for the fact that Mai and Niko had just been talking about the scale. Whether it was going to be tough or not, Tahra was going to help Niko get it back. Which, first things first, she needed to finish gathering the information about the place. Her gaze went to Niko again before she added, "I have something to take care of real quick. Don't stay on too much longer with her because she probably isn't the only one trying to contact us; the signal's encrypted but if they've got brains like hers, someone else could figure a way to break the code eventually. When you're done, come to the last room on the left down that hall there." She pointed to the door that was closest to them before giving a sarcastic salute to Mai and then walking off herself. The last room on the left was her actual computer room where all of her equipment was. It wouldn't take her long to pinpoint the rest of the information about the scale, including where it was at and the layout of the building. She paused at the door though and turned back to Sophie. "If you want something to eat or drink, just head down that door over there and it'll lead to the kitchen on the right and a full bath on the left. Help yourself to anything to want." With that said, she turned and left down the hall.

Livia Hayes
​

"Yeah, I heard that too. He's an amazing hunter though, supposedly he's felled a few dragons in his life and he's only twenty-nine. He's one of the youngest to have a great record like that but...that could be one of the reasons he doesn't get along well with people." Livia thought about the rumors she'd heard of him before shrugging her shoulders lightly. "Hopefully we can learn some things from him, some pointers or something. We'll have to entertain ourselves somehow while on babysitting duty and maybe he'll feel the same." Or not. He could just tell them to keep quiet while he did something else, like taking the job very seriously. Not that Livia would put it passed him to just try to get out of it either. It was hard to say for sure. Shrugging lightly, she led the way out of the room and down the hall to where the others were already gathering their gear. Livia had her special handgun on her already, so she went to grab a tranquilizer gun as well and set it to the empty holster at her side. Two butterfly knives were placed into her boots, along with some throwing knives lining her coat's inner pocket. Once she felt secure with what she had, she glanced over to Sahara before nodding in her direction.


"Giving us only an hour to get ready and then leave isn't a lot of time either. I don't even know where Thompson would frequent if he wasn't on duty." Another problem if they couldn't find him. "You want to split up and search for him? We can exchange numbers and call when we find him. It might be faster than trying to search for him together."

 

[StarryKnights]

Niko Medina and Sophie Stolts
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Niko wasn't surprised to hear that Kaito had been identified. He was a public figure after all, since they had his picture it must've been simple to discover who he was. For his sake, he hoped he was able to get a hold of anyone precious in his life. Sophie watched as a look of panic came across his features, she hoped who ever Ma was, he was able to get a hold of her. A part of her wanted to follow Kaito, but she didn't want to interrupt his phone call. Niko was focused on Mai, so he hardly noticed Kaito's arguing as he debated with the person o the phone. Niko's eyes flickered to Tahra as she stood behind him and leaned into frame. It seemed these two were evenly matched when it came to their computer usage, or maybe Mai was just being polite. Either way, Niko knew it wouldn't be easy to hack Mai's system. She was a genius when it came to code, Niko wasn't unconvinced that she was in fact, a robot. That wold also explain her odd personality. Niko watched as Tahra left, off to a room that Niko had previously assumed was a closet. Sophie watched her leave as well, once she was gone, she spoke up. "uh....Niko...could you...a-ask her about...uh..." She pointed to herself. Sophie was worried that somehow, the hunters had gotten her picture or something. Sophie just wanted to make sure her parents weren't in danger, seeing Kaito all riled up had gotten her thinking about them. 


Niko sighed and looked back to Mai. "...What do you have on the other two dragons?" Mai blinked. "They have yet to identify you as...you. As for the other, all we have is that she is a female. We do not have visual confirmation of their identity" Niko nodded. "Good...well I suppose we're done here then" He stood. Mai nodded. "...Be careful Niko. If you or anyone wind up here, it wil be difficult to remedy the situation"


Mai's words, and her cold, robotic tone sent a shiver down Sophie's spine. She talked so freely about capture... Niko nodded. "We are in a safe place, no doubt you know where" Mai cocked her head to the other side. "Perhaps, perhaps not. I will contact you again if something should change. Don't worry, I've altered the signal on this device, so it can't be used by the hunters to find you. So keep it around" Niko smiled. "Noted, take care kid" Mai frowned. "You know I hate being called that" Niko just chuckled before the screen went black. Mai was even younger than Sophie, so he had every right to call her kid. 




Niko turned and looked to Sophie, who fidgeted in her chair. She could tell something was up, and she didn't like it. "Niko..." The older dragon walked over, leaned down and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Relax Sophie. We're safe here. Get some water, try to calm down" He looked over to Kaito, who was still on the phone. "I bet Kaito would like some water too..."Sophie sighed and looked from Kaito to Niko. "...Whatever you two are planning...just promise you'll be careful...okay?" Niko nodded, stood up, pat Sophie on the head before heading to the room Tahra had disappeared into. Once he was gone, Sophie sighed and followed Tahra's directions to the kitchen. After some searching she found some glasses and got two glasses of water, one for herself and the other for Kaito. She wondered what Tahra and Niko had planned, whatever it was, it was probably insanely dangerous. "Just please be careful" she whispered under her breath and she went back to the living room. 

Sahara Cephres 
​

Sahara followed Livia to the equipment room, and grabbed her preferred gear. Her knives, the tranq gun, and even a regular pistol, which she placed in a holster she took. After what had happened to Cooper and his team, she wasn't taking any chances. Sure knives were more fun, but a bullet would be faster if needed. Sahara had zero intentions of being a casulaity at the hands of one of these creatures. Looking to Livia, she nodded and pulled out her phone. "Here, enter your number" It would be easier to find this guy if they split up, Sahara had no idea where he'd be if he wasn't at his post. He was a loner and kept to himself, but he also boasted an impressive record when it came to killing dragons. She wondered what he'd be able to teach them...assuming they could find him. The hour deadline didn't work in their favor. "I'll swing downstairs and pick up Mai, email says she's coming with us...guess they want her back at the research center for something" She assumed it was a security measure, if something happened to the girl, development on the weapon would be halted. 


That couldn't be allowed to happen, so Mai had to go back to the most secure building the company had to date. Sahara chuckled. She could imagine the girl wasn't thrilled about being escorted about like a child. 

 

[pyreshadow]

Tahra Casey and Kaito Iwasa
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Tahra walked to the last room on the left and inputted a five digit code on the keypad next to the door. Once the light turned green and she heard a ping from the other side, she opened the door and walked inside. Several monitors were hooked up to each other, along with a keyboard and mouse hooked in to the tower. It would have been better to connect that device to this monster but there wasn't the time for it as the ringing had been getting annoying. It was all right though, no matter how good that scientist thought she was she wouldn't be able to trace where they were at the moment. Not because Tahra was cocky and thought her skills were anything but the best but because keeping people out of her life was what she did. She mastered that at a young age so she was safe...they were safe. Sitting down in the chair, Tahra pressed in some functions on the keyboard and three of the monitors turned on. The one on the far right was the security feed she'd be looking in to soon and the other three that were now on were all linked together. She pulled up a couple different programs at the same time, one screen almost immediately pulling up the file she had gotten from her phone about the scale. All that could be heard was the sound of clicking as she typed rapidly and focused only on the screens before her.


Several minutes passed by in a daze for Tahra but she was able to get exactly what she wanted. Whether it was from HQ or not was irrelevant, the files that told the location of the scale were now hers along with the blueprints of the building. Leaning forward slightly, she brought her hand up to nibble lightly at her fingernail as she mulled over the blueprints. She paused when a beep sounded near the door so she whirled the chair around to give her a boost in the direction of it. "I got the information we need." Tahra announced as she opened the door for Niko, making a motion for him to come inside. "It isn't going to be easy but it's not impossible either. The facility that it's being held at, this Twilight's Edge, is one of the most secure places I've ever seen. I imagine it's in part thanks to your friend, who I might add is a very interesting woman. It's been a long time since I've come across someone that won't let me in easily." Tahra sat down on the chair and typed in a few commands again before pointing to the monitor that had the security feed on it. It was outside of the building they'd be getting in to, the research facility itself. "That's where we're going to go. According to the data, it's held on the third floor under some extra tight security, as if the building didn't have enough. But-" Tahra swirled the chair again to give Niko a smile. "That's what I'm for. I can get us past that security without too much trouble. The guards will cause more problems than the security programs will. You can fight, right?" Tahra was hoping it wouldn't come down to that, that they could sneak in and out without any problems but she wasn't going to assume either. If they ran into trouble, she just wanted to make sure he could handle things too.


Kaito had been engrossed in his conversation with Ma that he hadn't noticed when Tahra and Niko left the room, or even Sophie for that matter. The woman was stubborn as hell and wouldn't listen to his warnings for her to leave the city. She was upset that he had left like that and was demanding answers he couldn't give. Finally, he had to give up and just pray that she'd be safe. After he got off the phone, he was so close to just throwing it into the nearest wall. "Shit...shit shit shit." The curses left his lips once after the other before he dropped to his knees onto the ground. He held himself close, burying his head into his knees as he gripped the phone so tightly his knuckles were beginning to go white. Ma had no idea the kind of danger she was in right now and she wasn't listening to him either. If the hunters got a hold of her....the thought made him squeeze his knees a bit tighter as another curse left his lips.

Livia Hayes
​

Livia took the phone that was offered out to her and typed in her name and number for the other woman. Then she offered out her phone for Sahara to do the same. Once that was done, she put her phone away again and tilted her head to the right and then the left to stretch out her neck. "They probably want her back so she can hurry it up with the weapon. If they keep postponing it like they have, something's going to happen to her. She'll get the brunt of the blame and you know that the higher ups aren't very forgiving." Victoria just happened to be nice this time around to them since it had been their first mission. "I'll check the rooms first to see if he happens to be in his room and then I'll go from there since I'll be upstairs. I'll check back with you in twenty to give you an update." Since they were under a time crunch, they needed to hurry and find him so they could leave without any more trouble. With a quick wave, Livia headed off in the opposite direction to begin her search for their experienced hunter.


Meanwhile, Nicholas walked down the halls of the lower level already fully in gear for what was going to come. A shotgun was tied across his back and two handguns were attached to holsters around his waist. Sandy blonde hair fell into his hazel eyes, which he ignored as he was so used to it that it didn't bother him. His hair was messy and somewhat long, his features stoic. He had been told before that he was beautiful enough to be a doll, not that it was exactly something a guy wanted to hear. Let alone those same women called him tsundere as well, thinking they'd be able to get on his good side. Like he actually had one. They didn't know him or what he'd been through yet they tried so hard to get near him. It was so annoying. Why he had to work with people for this coming babysitting mission was something he'd never understand. He wasn't going to argue orders though. Pausing outside of the door to the scientist they'd be escorting back to the lab, he knocked loud enough for her to hear. "Mai, it's Thompson. I'm here to escort you back to your research lab." He announced loud enough to hear as well since he wasn't going to just barge in to the room.

 

[StarryKnights]

Sahara Cephres 
​

 
​

Sahara nodded. "Yeah, she'd better get her ass in gear, but I'm sure she's got it under control" Sahara chuckled. "She is absolutely brilliant, even if something was to go wrong, I doubt they'd b so quick to ax her" She knew Mai was a genius, if anyone could figure out this mess, she would. They'd have her working to reinstate the devices as well no doubt "I'll check in if I don't find him, after I find Mai" She nodded as Livia took off in the opposite direction. As she left, Sahara turned and headed for the closest set of stairs, so she could find her lab rat friend. No doubt she was holed up in her room, waiting for transportation. She'd be thrilled when she saw that it was Sahara's turn to be her security detail.


Mai blinked and looked up as a knock and voice sounded at the door. Closing her laptop, she placed it on her bedside table. This was her personal computer, which she had programmed herself, from the ground up. It's connections to the internet were untraceable, and so, her chat with Niko would go unnoticed. Mai walked over and opened the door, to find Nicholas standing there. He was a handsome man by today's standards, though Mai had been told he did not like being told this. "Your my security detail?" she cocked her head to the side. "I did not think such a simple task was worthy of a high ranking hunter such as yourself". For such a high ranking official to be guarding her, Mai got the feeling they would be pushing for more results. She couldn't afford to stall them any longer. "Let me gather my things, and we can leave" She retreated into the room, leaving Thompson at the door. Not ten minutes later, as Mai stepped out with her laptop bag over her shoulder, Sahara came jogging over. "HEY! Look at that, found the both of you' she beamed at the younger girl, who just sighed and rubbed her eyes. 


Turning to Thompson, Sahara saluted the man before continuing. "Sahara Cehpres sir, I'm one of the newbies your baby sitting...along with this baby" she pointd to Mai. Pulling out her phone, she sent Livia a text, telling her that both their mentor and Mai were in the lower living levels. 

Niko Medina and Sophie Stolts
​

 
​

Niko stood outside the door for a few minutes, waiting for Tahra to let him in. She seemed to be keen on her privacy even the doors within her house had locks. It never hurt to be careful, especially when people were out for your hide. Once he was let in, Niko looked around, whistling. "Your set up just keeps getting more and more impressive...how'd you even get all of this stuff?" He figured she'd just give him an evasive answer, but he couldn't help but wonder. He doubted she'd bought any of it. He looked over the files she had up on the monitors as she explained what she'd found. He'd heard the name Twilight's Edge before, there had been talk of transferring him there when he was in captivity. "I've heard of that place..." he said with a sigh. It figured his scale was being kept there. It was almost poetic. He'd be breaking into the place they had planned on keeping him prisoner. 


At Tahra's question, Niko nodded. "I can fight...but not as well as I used to..." his hand went to his chest, and he traced the outline of his scale under his shirt. "...Halving my scale..halved my stamina and what not...so if we can avoid fighting, that would be best" Niko wouldn't last long against a group of skilled hunters in his condition, he usually went out of his way to avoid such fighting anyway. But in spite of the danger, he was excited. The idea of being whole once again was too much to pass up. 


Looking to Tahra, he grinned. "...When do we leave?" The sooner the better, Niko wanted to get back what was his Plus, the sooner it was taken care of, the less time Sophie would have to worry about them. She was a smart girl, she could already tel that they were up to something. However, that wasn't her concern at the moment. "Kaito...?" she frowned. He didn't seem to be having a lot of luck with whoever was on the other end of the line. Maybe it was that woman they'd seen him with earlier, she had looked old enough to be his...mother. She didn't look Asian though, but Kaito called her Ma... That could also just be a nickname, it wasn't right to make assumptions. Either way, Sophie got the feeling she had to be important to Kaito, why else would be be trying so hard to get her to understand. But how could she when he wasn't able to tell her everything. In the end, a human could never truly understand why they did the things they did. And it was for the best that this Ma remained in the dark. 


As Kaito hung up the phone Sophie sighed. "I'm sorry Kaito...I-" She jumped as he dropped to his knees. Setting the water glasses aside, Sophie darted over to the older man's side. "Kaito..." she frowned, seeing how upset he was only made her worry more for her own family. She wanted to call them, but she didn't want them to know she was in danger. Instead, Sophie got down on her knees and placed a gentle hand on Kaito's shoulder. "...It'll be okay..." she said softly. She wished she believed what she was saying. "...I bet...Ma will be fine. She seems like a strong, lady...maybe just a tad bit stubborn too..." she smiled. "I bet she'd just whack them with her purse if they tried anything..." Sophie chuckled a little at the image of an old lady whacking one of the hunter girls with a hand bag. Things were so uncertain right then, they had no idea if and when they could be found again. Sophie was thankful her loved ones were safe back home. She wondered if maybe, Kaito's worry over Ma was related to his own lack of family... The last thing she wanted was for him to lose someone else he cared about. But there wasn't anything she could do about it. All she knew was worrying wouldn't help anything. Sitting back on her knees, Sophie sighed. "...We just gotta keep our heads up and stay strong...I....like to think it's what my parents would tell me..." she looked to Kaito. "...I bet Ma would agree...". She squeezed his shoulder. She wasn't sure f any of this was helping, but Sophie had to try something. 

 

[pyreshadow]

Tahra Casey and Kaito Iwasa
​

"I accumulated everything over the years. Work requires me to have this stuff, plus it's amazing for gaming." Tahra gave a simplistic answer to not really say that she bought it because she needed the best equipment there was for her hacking jobs. Though she had a feeling he was expecting a simple answer, thankfully he didn't really push it too much. Some she'd bought with her own hard earned money...even if it was because of her job. Hearing that he heard of the research facility caused her to tilt her head with the smile still playing on her lips. Even the fact that he couldn't fight like he used to because of losing his scale didn't remove it from her face. "That shouldn't be a problem." Tahra turned in the chair and pulled up the schematics of the building on the main screens. "Here." Blowing up a part of the building on the side, she pointed to a small screen window near the roof. "It's a ventilation shaft but we could use it to get in to the building. From there, we just follow it along this route here and that should lead to the floor that your scale is on. It's getting down that'll be tricky since there's not only infrared cameras that'll track our heat signature but there's also trip wires and traps that can only be disarmed with the right code. I've already started scanning the system to get the coding so I can change it once we're there." As Tahra spoke, she trailed her finger across the screen to show the route she was speaking about before turning back to face him.


"With some luck, we should be able to get your scale back before they realize that I've gotten in. It's after that that might be the problem but...I think it'll be fine since you'll have your scale back by that point. Should everything run smoothly like I'm hoping." A beep from her screen brought her attention back and she noticed the files she downloaded for the coding was done being transferred to her phone. "Well, we've got everything we need now. Or I do at least." She spoke as she looked over the files on her phone, then got up and set it in her pocket. As she went to turn the computer into sleep mode she added, "Do you need anything else or can we head out? That car you stole is staying here, by the way."


Hearing his name, Kaito peeked through his arm to look Sophie over. His expression remained calm but his eyes held the truth behind them; he was more than worried about Marianna and how she was going to fare because of all this. Sophie was trying to be reassuring with her words and gestures, he knew it. It didn't help as much as he wished it would have but the thought was very much appreciated. A small smile grew on his lips as he readjusted his head onto his arms so he could look her over some. "She carries a tazer gun in her purse so she'd probably try using that before smacking them around." Kaito spoke with a chuckle as he remembered how she had used it on a fan of his that tried getting too close. Not that it had been the best of moves but the woman had been rather odd. Shaking his head slightly, a heavy sigh left his lips as he regarded Sophie with a gentle look. "Thank you. Marianna's a stubborn old coot but...I guess I just have to hope for the best for her sake. I know they won't kill her since she's human but...I'm worried that they'll try anything to get information out of her that she doesn't have. Hunters are the worst when it comes to torture or experimentation, or at least that's what I've heard. I haven't dealt with them too much outside of what happened when I was younger."

Livia Hayes
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"It isn't by choice but orders are orders. Babysitting two newbies isn't part of what I would want to do with my time either." Nicholas shrugged his shoulders, his arms crossing over his chest as he looked around the room. The only indicator that he heard what she said next was the small nod of his head. He waited by the door, leaning against its frame as he kept an eye on Mai while she got ready. A shrill voice to his ear called out to them and a sigh left his lips as he had an idea of who it was. The salute the woman, Sahara, gave was returned with one of his own out of politeness. "It's nice to meet you." No it wasn't but Nicholas was going to keep things pleasant if he wanted to stick with things running smoothly. Turning his attention back to Mai, he cocked his head a bit as he wondered why she was called a baby too. Probably because of her age in comparison to the other woman. There wasn't much time to think on it as quick footsteps coming down the hall caught his ear; Livia had casually jogged back down the stairs once she got the text. When she was close enough, she gave her elder hunter a salute.


"Sir, it's an honor to meet you officially. My name's-"


"Livia Hayes." There was a hint of a chuckle in Nicholas' tone as he noted the way Livia seemed surprised he knew. "Sahara already introduced herself, which means you'd have to be Livia if you're also looking for me and the scientist. Nice to meet you." His tone and expression went back to being stoic as he straightened up some.


"Right. Of course." Livia felt a little silly for being surprised he knew about her but shrugged it off as she peeked into the room. Mai seemed to be getting ready still, so she looked over Sahara first then Nicholas and then back again. "We're making good time though. It hasn't even been half an hour since Victoria dismissed us and we're just about ready to go."


"The car is all set as well. Rufus is going to be our driver from here on out; if you need to go anywhere outside of the research facility, ask me first and call him second. We don't want a repeat of what happened with Cooper's team. Even if you think this is nothing but babysitting, be prepared for anything." Nicholas said while keeping his gaze on Mai, almost hoping she'd hurry so he could just sleep in the car and not deal with any of them longer than he had to. There wasn't a real problem with them that he saw in their files, he just wasn't used to having company near him.

 

[StarryKnights]

Sahara Cephres
​

Sahara chuckled as Livia strolled up and got schooled. Nicholas seemed to be throwing them both off their game, but it was so cool to be around someone with such a blood stained reputation. Mai was the only one who seemed indifferent, she gathered her things and returned to the door. She nodded her head in greeting to Livia before turning to Nicholas. "I am ready now" she said in her usual robotic tone. She was worried about having this man at her facility, she got a sinking feeling that Niko and his lady friend might try something stupid. If they did tht, Mai would have to choose her side. She'd never truly agreed with the hunting of dragons, but she did want to study them She found a willing cooperation would be more efficient, but the organization seemed paranoid that unless the beasts were caught, then they'd wreak havoc on humanity.


This might've been true in the old days, but there had been less then ten dragon attacks on humans that weren't provoked by the hunters. Of course, Mai kept all these thoughts to herself, and went about her work. Like her father before her, she saw dragons as more than monsters. If Niko and his friend did something stupid and got caught, Mai would be forced to pick between her work and her morals, and honestly, she wasn't sure which one would hold out.  Lost in though, mai didn't pay much attention to Nicholas as he spoke t the girls, she was thinking of what her best options would be if something were to happen. Sahara on the other hand, listened intently, nodding as the man finished. "Will do sir...if there's nothing else..." she looked to Mai, who was, as per usual, lost in her own thoughts. "I think we're ready to go now" 


Mai blinked, snapping back to the conversation. "That is what I said, I am ready t go...where is the car parked?" Sahara looked to Nicholas and Livia.. "Let's get going then". She beamed, she could hardly contain her excitement. Sure, this job would be boring, but at the very least they had a bad ass as a mentor. Sahara wondered if he'd let them pick his brains over is many fights and conquests over dragons. 

Niko Medina and Sophie Stolts
​

Niko scanned the blueprints, he'd never been in this building, so it would all be new to him. The place he'd been kept was a small, temporary facility while they worked on building a larger lab. Before it could be completed though, Dr. Acantha had helped his escape, if it hadn't been for the man's bravery, Niko would likely be dead. Before his death, the doctor had made contact with Niko, asking that he be careful, to keep his daughter, Mai out of trouble. Even now, that promise was at the back of his mind. "...I'm ready to go whenever, but there is one thing to address..." He looked to Tahra. "...If something goes wrong...if we...get caught, do not, under any circumstances, implicate Mai in helping us. I don't want her going down over us being careless..." The scientist was just a kid, if she was busted as a double agent, the punishment was liable to kill her. "I promised her father I'd keep her out of trouble if something went wrong..." And he intended to keep this promise, but ideally, nothing would go wrong. "We also have to think of something to tell Sophie and Kaito" 


Sophie offered the man a smile. "...She reminds me of my grandmother..." Sophie chuckled. "She carried a concealed weapon too, when she was...alive" Her grandmother had died of natural causes however, which was somewhat rare for a dragon. As Kaito mentioned his past, Sophie frowned, and curiosity shone in her eyes. It was definitely a sensitive subject, but she just felt she had to now. "...What happened...when you were younger?" she said softly. "I mean...if you...don't mind telling me" Sophie had an ideal life, with both parents and a stable home. This was rare even for some humans, but for a dragon? She knew she was very, very lucky. Ad now she'd gone and messed it all up, if her parents knew the kind of trouble she was in, they'd be furious. However, they'd still be alive. Sophie got the feeling that wasn't the case for Kaito. 

 

[pyreshadow]

Tahra Casey and Kaito Iwasa
​

Tahra's head tilted to the side curiously when Niko mentioned needing to address something. She kept quiet though, the serious look on her face fading into a small smile when he finally got out what was on his mind. He wanted to protect the scientist that they had just spoken to. A worthy opponent she was but Tahra had no intention of bringing anyone down if she was caught. "You don't have to worry about that, Niko." She gave him a reassuring smile, already having an idea in the back of her mind about what was going to happen if they were actually close to being caught. She needed to make sure she had a backup plan and the one she had...wasn't the best. At least one of them would make it out of there just fine. "Her secret meetings with you will be safe with me, I promise." She added after a moment as she figured it would be better to not let him know about plan b should things make a turn for the worse. It'd be better that he didn't know. "As for what to tell them...that's going to be tough. If it's up to me, I won't tell them anything except for the fact that we're going out and we'll be back when we get back. I don't like telling people my business as it could lead to them getting hurt because of me. So I'd rather avoid it and keep Sophie not liking me." Kaito would probably understand why she didn't want to say anything but Sophie wouldn't. The other woman didn't like Tahra at all and it would take a blind, deaf man to not realize it. With one last look over her computer to make sure it was off, she made a motion to the door. "But you should eat something first before we go. Something light if you don't want anything at all. We never got to eat at your friend's place, you know." Not that she was completely hungry herself but she'd grab a protein bar or something to tide her over at the very least.


Kaito stole a glance towards Sophie as he wondered what had killed her grandmother. Since she lived such an easy life compared to most dragons, he assumed it was natural how her grandmother died but he could never be certain in this day and age. The hunters were relentless. The smile on his face faltered some when she asked about his past and almost immediately he turned his gaze forward and to the ground. A hand came up to run through his hair, unintentionally pulling it out of the ponytail it had been in. His hair fell down to almost his shoulders and the tie he had used was pulled to his wrist for now. "I...used to have a life like yours. A father, mother, even a younger sister. We all lived outside of a city, keeping our distance from humans as much as possible. But we were happy, my sister and I not really having a care in the world. My mother was sickly though. She had been captured by hunters before and would tell us stories of what they did to her, just to make sure that we wouldn't wander too far from their reach. It didn't matter though. She was on their radar and had been since she made her escape, they just hadn't made a move until they gathered their forces." Kaito paused as he recalled what happened, still so vivid and fresh in his mind that it made him think it had happened yesterday.


"I was helping my father with field work, my mother and sister cooking dinner when they came. It was my sister's screams that caught my father and I's attention. By the time we got back to our house, it was up in flames with dozens of hunters surrounding the place. My sister had still been inside and my mother...she was dead at the hunters' feet trying to stop them. She wasn't strong enough because of what they had done and they took advantage of testing out their new guns against her. I wanted to help my father but he made me run. He made me promise to live so that I could fight another day and...I had been scared so I did. I ran until I couldn't run any longer and at that point I was in the city we tried so hard to avoid. The hunters killed my family and there was nothing I could do about it. They were so many and he was fighting against them and his feelings. I...wish I had been strong enough then to stand by my father but I know it wouldn't have made a difference. For the first couple of nights, I just stayed where I was and prayed they wouldn't find me. The man that did owned an orphanage and took me in..." Again Kaito's voice trailed off a moment before a heavy sigh left his lips. "Sorry, I didn't mean to prattle on about it. It's been a long time since I talked about it to someone so..." shrugging lightly, Kaito attempted to give her a smile though it ended up being rather meek at best. "Do you...want some food? I think Tahra said she had stuff here already."

Livia Hayes
​

"The car is parked in lot A, already waiting for us." Nicholas made a motion to where they would be heading before starting in that direction. He didn't bother looking back to make sure that they were following as he assumed that they'd be smart enough to do it. Livia followed after him, giving Sahara a fast smile as she was still pretty excited about having him as their mentor. He didn't seem the friendly type like the rumors said but that didn't mean she wouldn't try to get some tips out of him. After the first few minutes went by in silence, Livia caught up to him as they neared the stairs and decided to just ask whatever came to her mind.


"There's a lot of rumors going on about you, Sir. Like how you felled so many dragons and at such a young age too. Is there any tips that you can give us since we're just starting out?" The words caused Nicholas to glance over his shoulder first at Livia and then at Sahara before he shrugged his shoulders lightly.


"Don't die and don't be too reckless. Dragons are fierce when they're cornered and will do anything to protect themselves and those they hold dear. If you let yourself get dragged down by your own ambition or cockiness then you'll end up as nothing more than food." He kept his words simply, thinking that it'd be more than sufficient to answer her question. With another glance over his shoulder to her though, he could see the slight pout on her face as it wasn't an answer she wanted to hear. "Look, I'm not the best one to follow if you wants tips and tricks of the trade. You're better off going to speak with Montgomery or George than me. If you want help training, I can do that but don't expect me to go easy on you."


"Really?" Livia was surprised to hear the offer and it was clear in her tone and expression about it too. Nicholas just gave her a nod of his head before opening the door that led to the parking lot. The suburban was waiting near the entrance, Rufus' heavy metal music could be heard blaring even from their distance. "That would be wonderful if you could."


"When there's time then I will. For now..." Nicholas trailed off and motioned to Mai, giving Livia the hint that he wanted to just focus on getting her back to the facility first. She gave a quick, firm nod of her head but couldn't help the smile she sent to Sahara. If he was serious about letting them train, that meant that this mission was going to be for a while. The babysitting didn't seem so bad anymore, at least not to her.

 

[StarryKnights]

Niko Medina and Sophie Stolts
​

Niko breathed a sigh of relief. Knowing that Mai would be safe would make all of this much easier. If something were to go wrong, if they were to be captured, he didn't want Mai to suffer over their carelessness. Mai was just a kid, deep down inside, she didn't deserve whatever punishment the hunters would enact if they were to discover that she was aiding their enemies. Mai was smart, probably too smart of her own good, so Niko didn't worry too much about their video chats being discovered. Between Mai's encryption and Tahra's coding, he doubted anyone would be able to prove anything. It was somewhat comforting to know that he had two skilled allies in his corner. Knowing that Mai would be safe, regardless of how everything went down made it easier for Niko to focus on what came next. Breaking into this Twilight research facility was not going to be an easy feat, and failure was a very real possibility. If something were to go down, Niko knew he'd rather have himself be captured, he was already damaged goods, there wasn't much left for them to do to him. If they caught Tahra though... He shook his head. He would do everything in his power to prevent that. 


With that aside, Niko turned his thoughts to Sophie and Kaito, both of whom were still outside. Tahra was right, telling them about what they were planning was only going to upset them both. "...As much as I hate lying to her, Sophie wouldn't let us go if she knew..." He scratched the back of his neck and sighed. "She'll wonder what we're up to, but given that Kaito is here, she should stay put when we go" he chuckled at Tahra's words. "I don't think she dislikes you, she's just, unsure of what to make of you. Sophie probably hasn't dealt with a lot of head strong woman before....just try to be nice", and she'll come around". If these two continued their silly little feud it would make sticking together harder. Niko liked Tahra, but if something were to happen and they group split, Niko would be going with Sophie. The woman needed guidance and he wasn't going to abandon her. 


"...So, how should we tell them?" he asked, looking to Tahra. 


Sophie sat down and listened as Kaito told his story. She was very lucky to be able to grow up with her parents in a peaceful little town. She'd always known that, her parents had always told her this. Niko also reminded her often, but hearing what happened to Kaito and his family made it crystal clear that she was very lucky indeed. She paled as Kaito spoke, and felt tears brimming in her eyes. It was just so awful, and unfair, that someone as nice as Kaito had to lose everything at such a young age. She sniffled as he spoke of his mother and sister, and what had happened to them. It was just so awful. She wiped at her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to keep herself together. "I'm so sorry...And no, don't apologize...I...I'm glad you told me", she said softly, looking to him. To be able to move on after something so terrible, Sophie couldn't imagine. She would've fallen apart at the seams and remained that way for the rest of her days. She returned his smile with one of her own, though hers was just as sad. "...I...think food sounds great..." she said with a small chuckle. "I could definitely go for a sandwich or something" she said as she stood. Wiping the last of the tears away, she smiled down at Kaito and offered him a hand up. "And I bet Niko would agree", she said looking to the door the other dragon had gone though with Tahra. 


Food? Niko hadn't thought about that, but as Tahra mentioned it, his stomach growled, loudly. He blinked. 'Oh right, food is a thing...I guess eating is important..." As he said this, there was a knock at the door. "Niko! I'm going to fix something to eat, you want me to make you something?" Sophie's voice sounded on the other side of the door. Niko chuckled and looked to Tahra. "We eat...and then we'll uh...tell them".

Sahara Cephres
​

 
​

Sahara followed close behind Livia as she spoke with Nicholas. She was just as exited to hear what the seasoned hunter had to say on the matter of well, hunting. He was the best after all. His words left a little to be desired however, and she could tell from the frown on Livia's face that she agreed. Sure, Nick was making a good point, but it wasn't anything new for either fledgling hunter. They knew that dragons were dangerous and would strike when cornered. Sahara scoffed at the idea of letting her ambition getting in the way. Having a little ambition went a long way, and if it drove you to take risks, then you'd better make sure they pay off. Sahara was confidant, overly so, at times. She wanted to be challenged and would go looking for one if needed. 


However, at the idea of some one on one training, Sahara perked right back up. "That would be amazing, sir" she said with a nod of her head. It would be a priceless opportunity, to be trained by this man. She couldn't wait to get back to this research facility. Once Mai was back where she belonged, she and Livia could focus on getting some invaluable one on one training from Nicholas. 


Mai followed behind the three hunters, lost in her own thoughts. Livia and Sahara were both clearly excited about Nicholas being there, but Mai was not. She had a bad feeling something was coming, something was going to happen. If Niko and his band of misfits made an attempt to...dare she even think it, break into Twilight Research center, Nicolas's presence would put them all in major danger. She decided she'd try to contact him again when they got back, once she got a moment alone. 

 

[pyreshadow]

Tahra Casey and Kaito Iwasa
​

"It's not like you're lying to her really. You just aren't telling her the whole truth, so it should be fine." Tahra waved her hand a little in an attempt to dismiss the worry he might be feeling about keeping this plan of theirs from the other two. Lying was something she had to do in her line of work so she didn't see anything wrong with it; so long as it kept others from getting hurt because of her, it would be better. At least Sophie would be entertained while she was waiting. Not only with Kaito here but with all the stuff Tahra had for entertainment; video games, movies, television, books. Whatever Sophie wanted to do -within reason- she'd probably find it here. It was Tahra's safe haven and she had always wanted to make sure she could stay here for a while without getting bored or hungry. A soft hum left her lips as she mulled over Niko's words of the other woman. Was Tahra really that head strong? She didn't think so but maybe that wasn't what the others saw. "What? I am nice." There was a pout on Tahra's face before she set a hand to her hip, a smirk growing not even a couple seconds later. "Telling me to tone down the teasing would be better than telling me to play nice. I always think about the well being of others." Way before she ever thought about the well being of herself, not that she was going to say that much out loud. Another hum of thought left her lips before she shrugged her shoulders lightly.


"I'd say just be up front about it while we eat or something. Let them know you and I have something crucial that needs to be done but we can't go into any details. Or if you don't want them worrying, you can just say that I want to get to know you more personally or something. I don't know, whatever would get them to worry less I guess. They're your friends so you'd know best on how to keep them from asking too many questions." Tahra named off a couple of suggestions while taking a hair tie from her pocket out. She bent slightly to flip her hair over her head and gathered it all up to put it in a high ponytail for the time being.


Kaito wasn't sure why someone would want to hear his story, let alone someone as sweet and innocent as Sophie was. He didn't want to bring her down any or burst her bubble, so to speak. He liked her the way that she was and wished that nothing like his experiences would happen to her or her family. When she agreed about food, he felt a bit relieved that the topic would die down so he took a slow breath to rid some of the emotions he had been feeling. He needed to stay calm and level headed during times like these and thinking of the past was going to make him feel other things. It needed to be buried once again. "A sandwich would taste pretty good actually. I wonder what kinds of things Tahra has for us to work with." He mused softly out loud, already knowing they'd find out soon enough. Taking the hand offered out, he carefully got up and stretched a bit to try to rid the last of the somber feeling left. "After you." He held his hand out to point in the direction that Tahra and Niko had gone before following after her.


"Ya, food's important." Tahra spoke with a giggle in her tone when Niko seemed like he had forgotten all about it, though his stomach didn't. Not too long after a knock was on the door with Sophie announcing she was going to make something. Tahra eyed the door for a moment before giving Niko a nod. "Sounds good to me. Best to keep their minds on something a bit more peppy while eating so they don't lose their appetites with questioning if you don't come up with something good." Tahra spoke in a teasing tone again before heading to the door and heading out. A smile was given to Sophie and Kaito before she motioned in the direction of the kitchen. "We're all gonna eat, it's a good idea. You sure you want sandwiches though? I've got tons of stuff so you don't have to be limited to that." As she spoke, she began to lead the way through the house to the kitchen. Once Niko left the room, the door would automatically close and lock behind him so she didn't have to worry about the other two getting in.

Livia Hayes
​

"eeeyyy, old man. Haven't seen ya in forever! How ya been?" The music stopped abruptly as Rufus poked his head out the window, eyeing Nicholas as they approached the car.


"Fine. You know where we're headed?" Nicholas kept his reply short and to the point, causing Rufus to snort and chuckle at the same time.


"Course I do, I know everything that goes on in this hellhole. Come on, get your asses in and buckle up." His hand came to tap the car door as if trying to hurry them up before he settled back in to the car himself.


"Always a charmer, that one." Livia spoke with a chuckle at how Rufus behaved so differently than the rest of the drivers. How he managed to keep his job with that attitude was still surprising but she couldn't help but to appreciate it. It made her smile and kept her entertained. Nicholas seemed indifferent to the antics of the other male and just opened the side door before motioning for the women to get in. Livia was half tempted to make a comment about how gentlemanly that was but she refrained from doing so. It wouldn't be a good idea if he didn't like those kinds of compliments when she wanted to train with him. So she climbed in to the very back seat so that Mai and Sahara could get the middle ones. Once the two other women were inside, Nicholas closed the door behind them and went to the front passenger seat before climbing in.


"Try not to kill our eardrums with that garbage." Despite the words, there was an actual hint of teasing to Nicholas' tone that caused Rufus to chuckle again.


"Ya know ya love it so suck it up. It's not like ya see me very often anyway. Punk." The retort caused the older hunter to shrug his shoulders before he focused his gaze outside of the window. Rufus stared at the back of his head for a long moment before sticking his tongue out at the other man. Then he started the car and began to pull out of the parking garage. He only got to the main road before he turned on the music once again, not even caring too much if it was too loud for the others or not. Or rather, he did care it just didn't click that it might be too loud for them in the back.

 

[StarryKnights]

Sahara Cephres
​

 
​

Sahara chuckled, she liked Rufus, he was spunky and funny, unlike the other drivers. Mai frowned when she saw the man, he'd driven her around once before, the experience had left her with a splitting headache, thanks to his loud music. Just thinking about it was enough to bring a frown to her face, but she supposed that there was no sense in complaining. She climbed into the car and took her seat in the middle row, behind the driver, leaving Sahara to sit behind the passenger seat. The tall woman grimaced as her knees nearly went to her stomach, the benefits of being tall and in the back seat. Mai couldn't hep but smile, watching Sahara squirm in an attempt to get comfortable was semi funny. Seeing the smirk, Sahara grinned, before twisting in her seat so her feet were propped on the seat, and stretched over Mai's lap. The scientist just sighed and elected to ignore the hunter, after shoving her feet back to the floor. Once her seat belt was buckled her gaze went to the window. 


It wasn't easy for Sahara to buckled sitting the way she was, but she managed to make it work. Being stretched out was way more comfortable, she'd debated asking for the front seat, but didn't want to look like a whiner or anything. Once she was secured Rufus headed out, back on the highway he turned on that trademarked music. 


Sahara grinned, as the volume didn't bother her, but a quick look at Mai told her the younger woman wasn't as keen on the noise. She had her head rested against the glass and her hands over her ears. "Hey, Rufus, could you turn that down a bit?" she leaned up and looked to the driver. "Mai here doesn't seem to like it" 

Niko Medina and Sophie Stolts
​

Niko sighed, he still didn't like the idea of having to lie, or tell a half truth, as Tahra put it. But the bottom line was, he wanted his scale back, and there was no other option but to go and take it. The less Sophie knew about that, the better. He and Tahra would handle all the of the intricate details, and if they were caught, then Sophie and Kaito wouldn't be involved. It was what was best. Niko took a breath and shook his head trying to clear his head. He knew Tahra was right, but that didn't make it any easier. He knew that if they both made it back, Sophie would be very, very angry. The little air dragon could be quiet scary when she was really riled up. He'd only seen her ever get really angry once, and that had been back when he'd first met the dragon. Niko hadn't been in a good place at the time, and honestly, he been debating some rather drastic measures in order to end his suffering. Sophie had caught him trying to...harm himself, and she'd been livid. He didn't want to ever make her that upset again, but this time things would be different. He just hoped she'd be willing to listen to him when this was all said and done. There wasn't much point in worrying about all of this though, Niko wasn't going to pass up this opportunity to get back what was rightfully his. But right now, he was going to eat a real meal, and enjoy the company of his odd group of friends, and try to enjoy himself. 


Sophie helepd Kaito to his feet and offered the older man a smile before going over to the door Niko and Tahra had disappeared behind. After knocking, Tahra came out, offering them more than the sandwiches Sophie had been thinking of. The air dragon waited for a moment for Niko to come out before following Tahra to the kitchen. "We don't want ti impose Tahra...but I can cook something more...well, meal like if you want' she smiled. She'd loved cooking back home, it had been on of her favorite hobbies, and she wasn't half bad at it either. Perhaps a nice meal would take every one's mind off the situation they were in. After listening to Kaito's story, Sophie felt she needed a pick me up. She felt everyone else could use the same. "Depending on what you have there's lots I could make" Sophie said as she sped up so she was walking alongside Tahra. 


Niko blinked, surprised at ho civil Sophie was being, but then again, he knew she loved to cook. And she was damn good at it, if her cooking proved to be the last meal he ever had, that would be pretty awesome. 

 

[pyreshadow]

Tahra Casey and Kaito Iwasa
​

"It's not imposing if I'm offering, you know. I certainly don't want to eat a sandwich when I can make something more hearty and yummy." Tahra pointed out, trying to be nice even though there was still a bit of teasing in her tone. It was sweet that Sophie was trying to be respectful in that way but not necessary. "Here, take a look for yourself." The door to the kitchen was open, one that was full of nice equipment too. The refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher were all the same dark silver color and looked to be of the same set. The counters were made of marble and the cabinets matched the light maroon color embedded into the marble itself. Tahra went to open the closest closet first and motioned with her hand to what was inside. There were noodles, sauces, spices, cereal, canned goods, and many more things organized neatly inside. When she neared the refrigerator, she opened it only briefly to show it was just as stocked with various goods as well. The freezer was just as stocked and it was made pretty clear that Tahra wasn't kidding when she said she could live here if needed. It was just another reason why she knew Kaito and Sophie would be safe once she and Niko left on their little adventure.


"Wow." Kaito breathed out the word, his head nodding with how he was impressed once again by the sight. How did she manage to get all of this stuff? Even if he asked, she'd probably worm her way out of the question so all he could do was say wow.


"Ya, I know. It's great." Tahra chuckled a little before her arms went out as wide as they could. "Welcome officially to my humble...second abode. Whatever you see, feel free. Mi casa es su casa...or whatever they say. You get what I'm saying." She figured she probably said the saying wrong so she was quick to shrug before laughing quietly. "If you want to cook though, I'd greatly appreciate that. I don't really have the time to actually cook these days so I usually just eat some barbeque Lays chips and Dr. Pepper. Sweet, salty, and delicious."

"Far from being healthy though. Tell me you eat other things too." Kaito stared at her with a bit of concern but Tahra merely gave him an innocent smile as her attention went to Sophie instead.


"So what do you want to cook for us? I'll tell you if I have the ingredients for it." There was some excitement in her tone at the thought of having a home-cooked meal for once. A rare thing for her, one that she wasn't sure would be good to get used to. She'd enjoy it while she could though but there was only so long she could play pretend with them.

Livia Hayes
​

Rufus was mumbling in an attempt to 'sing' along with the song and didn't even hear what it was that Sahara said. It wasn't until he felt a kick to the back of his chair that he turned the music down with a glare sent to Livia. "The hell was that for?" He demanded in an annoyed tone.


"All right, all right. Sorry. I'll keep it quieter." He did too, keeping the volume where it had ended up which was fairly quiet compared to how he'd usually have it. His head still bobbed in time with the music and he was quite content with everything. The whole ride only took about twenty minutes -with the way he drove- to get to the facility they needed to be at. He pulled up to the side entrance, one that the scientists were supposed to use when coming back. He supposed it had to do with some screening with the security in the building or something. "Out ya go, girlies and gent. If ya need me, ya know me number but don't abuse it. I have a second job ya know so I may not be able to always answer right away." He winked at the end of his words, insinuating something that caused Nicholas to smack him lightly.


"No one wants to know about your nightlife, Rufus. We'll keep you posted on what's going on." Again, there was a hint of teasing in his tone before he got out of the car first and walked around to open the door for the ladies. "What's the drill, Mai? Are we allowed to walk freely in here or do we need some sort of pass for things?"

 

[StarryKnights]

Niko Medina and Sophie Stolts
​

Sophie frowned at Tahra's teasing tone, but decided to ignore it. She was guest in Tahra's home, arguing with her would've been rude. Instead, she thought about what she wanted to cook. She was craving chicken fried steak, her mother had a special recipe and Sophie had committed it to memory as soon as she was able to. It was her favorite dish, and her mom always made it for her when she was feeling down. The thought brought a smile to her face, a somewhat sad smile, as it made her think about her parents. She hoped they were both safe... 


"Uh, Sophie" Niko tapped the woman on the shoulder, snapping her out of her trance. "Huh, what...?" she blinked, and did a double take as they were now standing in Tahra's fully stocked kitchen. "Oh my" Sophie said as she looked around. How Tahra had gotten all of this was beyond her, but Sophie was just happy to have the opportunity to eat some real food. "this is wonderful Tahra, how on earth did you...well, I suppose that isn't important" Sophie looked to the redhead, smiling. There were so many possible dishes to be made... There were noodles, spices sauces, everything Sophie could ever want. 


Niko chuckled as Tahra explained what she usually cooked, mostly because Kaito didn't seem to approve. Niko usually ate out of the dumpster, but he decided to keep that to himself. His stomach growled again, making the fire dragon blush a little. "Alright Sophie, what do you want to cook?" 


Sophie turned around and grinned. "I know exactly what I want to make" she looked to Tahra. "I just need..." She prattled off a list of ingredients for her mother's chicken fired steak recipe. If she didn't have the ingredients, Sophie could make a mean pot of spaghetti. However, she was clearly very excited at the notion of cooking her favorite meal, she was practically bouncing off the walls. It brought a smile to Niko's face, seeing Sophie acting like her old self. He frowned, thinking about how after this meal, he and Tahra would be leaving. 

Sahara Cephres
​

Once the music went down Mai was able to relax a bit more. She noticed that Rufus was both speeding and driving recklessly, she pondered how he even kept his job with the company. It didn't seem to bother any of the hunters, then again, they probably didn't know how cars worked. If Rufus hit another car driving the way he was, it would likely kill at least one of them. Mai ran the calculations for the odds of a crash, and silently hoped if something were t happen, it would not be herself or Sahara who perished. She wouldn't mind if this senior hunter met an unfortunate end, as his presence would make her work all the harder. Mai didn't dislike Livia, whom she only knew form the file she'd be given about the woman when she was assigned as her body guard. The driver was annoying, his death would not bring Mai any sadness.


She was all to happy when the facility came into view, even though the drive was a lot shorter than normal. Mai crawled out of the car after Sahara and Livia, stretching. They were by the service entrance, where the scientist were told to go so they could go through security. "There's a security check, I'll flash my ID" she held up the laniard around her neck. "Prior to the check, and it will get you all in" 


The average hunter wasn't allowed at Twilight, it's work was top secret. Mai wasn't permitted to talk about it outside of the facility, and even then, she could only discuss it with certain staff. Sahara nodded and pat Mai on the head. "Lead on then id" Mai sighed, shook off the hand and headed for the door, her laptop bag hung on her left shoulder, and she held her usual deadpan expression. 

 

[pyreshadow]

Tahra Casey and Kaito Iwasa
​

Tahra was pretty glad that Sophie decided to lay off on the questions of how she had gotten all the stuff. Tahra likely would have answered with grocery shopping but that probably wouldn't have satisfied the other woman very much. When Sophie finally started to say what it was that she wanted to cook, Tahra tilted her head a bit to the side as she thought about what if she had those or not. A soft hum left her lips as she turned to another closet, one smaller than the first that she had opened. Inside was a large box of the chips that she mentioned eating, along with cases of Dr. Pepper and some spices and seasonings not found in the other. She pulled out the ones that Sophie needed and closed the door quickly so Kaito couldn't say anything about her stash. Then she went to the first closet and grabbed what was needed from there, along with what was needed from the fridge. Once everything was gathered on one of the counters, she went to some of the cupboards and pulled out some pots and pans that she thought might be needed.


"So are you going to need any help cooking? I...can't really say I'd be very good at it." Tahra admitted with a light shrug of her shoulders, which seemed like an obvious statement based on what she typically ate. Not that she couldn't cook but more because most of the time she was just too tired from work or wasn't in the mood.


"I can help, if you need it. I usually cook my own meals when I'm at home so I probably have more experience than Tahra." Kaito spoke in a teasing manner near the end, causing the redhead to roll her eyes cheekily before laughing quietly.


"Ya got me. But that's okay! My skills lie in other things, besides. Who needs cooking when you've got Dr. Pepper and barbeque chips?" As if to emphasis her words, Tahra went to the fridge again and grabbed a cold Dr. Pepper to open it with a satisfied smile on her face. Kaito stared at her with a look of disbelief but he ended up just shrugging his shoulders since there wasn't much he could do about that. So long as she ate proper meals now and again it was fine; it also looked like she took care of herself too. So his attention turned back to Sophie to show he was still interested in helping if she needed.

Livia Hayes
​

Livia frowned a little at how easy it seemed to get in with such a simple method. Just because they flashed a badge, it meant just anyone could waltz right in? What happened if the badge was stolen or someone that was with the scientist was actually trying to steal information? That seemed almost too simplistic and somehow didn't seem right. Then again, Livia wasn't going to openly question anything but it seemed as though it was written on her face as Nicholas noticed. "The security measures here are top notch. If there is any sort of discrepancy on the badge or with the people, there are measures the scientist would take in order to protect what's here. For example, there are certain signs or body language that they are taught should someone be threatening them and making their way inside. You don't have to worry about how 'easy' it seems to be to get inside." Livia blinked when he finished talking and opened her mouth to say something but her voice was caught in the back of her throat. She didn't think she made it so obvious about what she was thinking but he read her like an open book. "Don't worry so much, you'll learn."


"Yes sir." Livia gave a quick nod when he added that and stood a bit straighter as he was, already trying to get a better feel of how he usually worked. So far, he was probably the most calm but also the most distant hunter she'd ever been working with and even though she wanted to ask a million questions, she kept her mouth shut.


"Well, Mai. We'll be following your lead for you. Go ahead." Nicholas made a motion to the door before crossing his arms over his chest to be a bit more comfortable.


"Will we be able to wander around certain areas or will we be stuck in one spot?" Livia asked suddenly as she figured it wouldn't be too great to be stuck in a room the entire time they were here. "What about the security measures too? What should we look out for so we can avoid any dangerous situations for ourselves?"

 

[StarryKnights]

Niko Medina and Sophie Stolts
​

As her ingredients were gathered, Sophie grinned. She was so excited to be cooking, it was one of her favorite pass times. She couldn't see why Tahra wouldn't use this marvelous kitchen and all this food. Sophie couldn't fathom living off of junk food and soda. The idea brought a frown to her face, which deepened when she spotted Tahra's stash in one of the cupboards. Rather than scold the other dragon, Sophie just chuckled. "I can handle it on my own, but if either of you want to help" she looked from Tahra to Kaito. "I'd be happy to accept it." Though it she was being honest, Sophie preferred the idea of having Kaito and not Tahra. There were few things more attractive than a man who could cook. The thought made Sophie blush a bit, so she busied herself, preparing the food. . As Tahra pulled out her stash of soda, Sophie just chuckled. "Tahra how you survive on junk food, I'll never know" Niko just stood back and chuckled, seeing Sophie blushed confirmed what he'd already suspected. She seemed to have a crush on one of their new friends, and given he knew Sophie was as straight as an arrow, he assumed it was Kaito.


She made it as obvious as the nose on her face, no doubt Tahra had picked up on it. No wonder the red head was so keen on teasing her, Sophie made it pretty easy. "Hey Tahra, what kind of television channels you get here?" he asked, walking over to the red head. It had been ages since the last time Niko had watched television. If they were going to go out on what could likely be a suicide mission, he wanted to watch a movie. Action preferably, but Niko wasn't going to be picky. 

Sahara Cephres
​

Mai sighed and nodded. She wondered what this Livia was thinking to warrant Nicholas to speak. She must've doubted their security, which was silly. Even if an outsider managed to get in, the automated security system would have them contained before they could do any real harm. The most valued asset the hunters had was stored here, the security as top notch. The heart scale, take from a captured dragon, was the most precious possession the organization, it had been used to develop the "secret weapon" that was now, nearly complete. Despite Mai's best efforts, development of the weapon had move forward, in spite of her repeated, covert sabotage attempts. She'd wanted to destroy the scale, ensuring that development could not continue, but somehow, couldn't bring herself to do it, knowing that it belonged to Niko. Her father had dreamed of returning the scale to the dragon, and Mai wanted to make that come to fruition. Perhaps then, her father could rest in peace. 


Mai stepped forward, pulling out her id badge in the process. "You'll be given visitor badges, which will grant you access to a number of rooms in the facility. Your not permitted to go in the labs, storage areas or armory. Your not to interfere with the work of the researchers, in fact you shouldn't be anywhere near the researchers. And lastly" Mai paused in front of the door and looked back at the group. "...Anything you might see or hear in this place is not to leave these walls. It is all highly confidential" Mai blinked, and sighed as Sahara nodded and grinned. "Noted kid, now lets get moving, please"


Mai sighed, flashed her badge at the guard before handing him her bag. He placed it on a table, looked through it, before passing down the line. Mai walked through a metal decter, which beeped loudly as Mai had forgotten to remove her necklace. After the pat down, Mai was cleared. She waited on the other side of the check, so the group wouldn't be separated.  

 

[pyreshadow]

Tahra Casey and Kaito Iwasa
​

"It's easy, I work out enough to actually be all right to survive on it. Not always physically though, lots of mental work outs are needed to. It's an art." Tahra joked a bit about her work before sipping at her drink again. Kaito seemed like he was going to be helping Sophie with the cooking, so she took that as a hint to get out. It was fairly obvious the other woman had some sort of feelings for the Asian and she wasn't going to interfere with that any. She was so close to teasing the woman too, lucky for Sophie that Niko spoke up before the redhead could actually say anything. "I don't have cable, I have a bunch of movies though that you can skim through. I don't always have much in the way of time when it comes to watching things so I just stay stocked up on movies." She shrugged a bit as it didn't really bother her too much since she wasn't a television show kind of girl anyway. Being immersed in movies was more her thing. "Here, I'll show you what I've got and you can pick something from there. Have fun lovebirds." Tahra waved over her shoulder as she led the way out of the kitchen once again to head back to the living room. Only she got a few steps before quickly going to the closet to grab a bag of chips before she actually left.


Once back in the living room, she looked over to Niko then pointed to the right side of the entertainment center. "That side has all the movies. Horror, action, thriller, romance, whatever you can think of genre-wise I've got them. There's even some B-rated movies just cuz I think they're fun to watch every now and then when you don't really want to think about anything." Tahra plopped down on the couch as she spoke and set her feet to rest on the coffee table in front of her. "When you find something, you can pop it in to the player underneath the tv and it'll boot them both. The controller is right beside it."


"Wha- lovebirds?" Kaito repeated in surprise, staring slightly wide-eyed as Tahra made her escape with a bag of chips and didn't really explain what she meant by that. After watching the door for a moment, he huffed a little and waved his hand dismissively towards it before turning to face Sophie. She was already working on getting prepping the food so he walked over and looked over what she was doing. "What would you like me to do? I don't want to ruin your flow so just stick me anywhere you need help with." He spoke with a smile on his face, Tahra's comment going to the back of his mind for now as he decided to ignore it for now.

Livia Hayes
​

As Mai began to give a quick run down of how things worked, Livia nodded once in a while to show she was listening. As disappointing as it would be to not be able to see the scientists and researchers work, it made sense. They needed to keep things under wraps as this was the most secretive building there was. Thus all the security measures and why Nicholas seemed so confident nothing would happen with intruders. Livia never assumed anything of the sort though as there were always flaws with something. A couple what if scenarios popped in to her mind but for now she pushed them aside as she didn't want to think about them. "Got it. I'll keep all that in mind." Livia spoke with another nod, knowing she'd probably want to talk about certain things but wouldn't be able to. At least she had someone that she could talk to, if Sahara would even want to. They followed Mai into the building and watched as she went through the security procedure first. The pat down didn't seem like it was going to be any fun so Livia made sure to take off anything metal that could interfere. All of her guns, knives, necklace, just about everything she could think of was set aside before she walked through. Nicholas seemed a bit more reluctant to do so and just showed off a badge of his own to the guard checking him over. Whatever it was, it got him clear to go through without having to do the metal detector.


"So." Livia spoke up, watching Sahara go through for a brief moment before turning her attention back to Mai. "Are you going to give us a quick tour of where we can go or will it be more of the 'we'll get a warning while figuring it out on our own' type of deals? Or is someone else going to give us a tour of where we can go?"

 

[StarryKnights]

Sahara Cephres
​

Sahara took off her metal and shoes to go through security, while she was searched Mai answered Livia's  question. "I'll show you where you can and can't go, after that, you'll be on your own. I have to get back to work" She looked down at her hone and started scrolling through emails she'd missed. The weapon was nearly complete, all that was left to do was to test it on a living dragon. This was the difficult part, as bringing a dragon back alive often proved to be dangerous. Odds were, they'd pursue the dragon they'd identified that day, the Asian man who went by the name Kaito. As Mai read up on the info they had on him, she wondered if he was with Niko and the other woman as well. She hoped so, he'd remain safe then. The hunters would think twice about attacking a group of dragons, at the very least they would organize some sort of plan, which would give Mai the time she needed to warn Niko and his friends. 


"Alright, where to now?" Sahara said as she came bounding over, slapping Mai on the back. The scientist jumped, throwing her phone into the air she scrambled to catch it. She shot Sahara a dirty look, the older woman just snickered. "...I'll show you around..." Mai said as she straightened out her coat and stashed her phone. This was going to be a long mission, Mai could already tell. 

Niko Medina and Sophie Stolts
​

Niko laughed softly, seeing Kaito's reaction as Tahra referred to them as lovebirds. Sophie turned three shades of red and quickly busied herself with the meal, not bothering to dignify Tahra's words with a response. Once they were back in the living room, he looked to Tahra. "I can only imagine what you were about to say". He smirked before looking through her movie selection, which was quite expansive. Niko had only gone to a few movies in his lifetime, but there was one he remembered really liking. A horror movie called 28 Days Later. It was about zombies and shit, some fantasy crap that was so far from real. f course, he was a fire breathing dragon, so who knew if zombies existed somewhere out in the world. He grinned when she saw Tahra did in fact have the movie. Following her instructions he popped the disc out of its box and put in it the player. 


He wasn't very fluent in technology, so after that he sat on the couch and propped his feet up on the table as well. He shook his head as the motion made the room spin for a moment. He rubbed his eyes and took a breath, waiting for the dizzy spell to pass. These, and other odd things had started happening not long after losing his scale. Sometimes it was dizziness, other times nausea, sometimes he threw up if it was really bad. Thankfully he didn't have anything in his stomach at the moment. He'd just figured his body had never learned to cope without his scale being in tact, he just got used to the odd episodes and hoped they passed quickly. At the very least, if they happened now, they might not happen when he and Tahra were working. Cracking his eyes open, Niko winced at how bright everything looked and shook his head again. 


After a few minutes Sophie calmed down some, and was able to answer Kaito's question. "Uh...well, you can uh..." she thought for a moment. "What should we have with the food?" she asked, looking to him. "...Chicken friend steak go great with mashed potatoes...think you an make those?" she smiled at him. She wished she could throttle Tahra for that comment before, but honestly that was what she wanted probably. 

 

[pyreshadow]

Tahra Casey and Kaito Iwasa
​

Tahra watched Niko searching for a moment before pulling out her phone and skimming through the files she had gotten earlier again. She lingered a bit on the limited information on the heartscale, skimming through the tests that had been done. It was hardly a good report that she found but it was enough to show that they were doing a lot of different tests. What they could be testing, she wasn't sure or why they'd be going to that extreme either. Whatever they were planning for it wasn't going to be good, which was just another reason why she wanted to help get it back. Right as she was about to go to the next page, her eyes narrowed as she noticed she was getting a call from her boss. Well, not really her 'boss' since Tahra didn't have a set job and thankfully didn't work for any particular agency. Still, it was enough to cause a small sigh to leave her lips as she wasn't ready to deal with it. Ignoring the call would just end up in several other calls with curses and a very angry man on the other side.


"You've reached the start of the space station dock, touring will begin tomorrow if you're interested. Please make sure to leave a message after the beep and I might get back to you when I come back to Earth. Beeeeeeeep." Tahra answered the phone as she stood up to walk over to the other side of the room, pretending she was a voicemail instead of her normal self. She was rather hoping it would work but the snippy comment at the end caused her to roll her eyes. All too quickly she was bombarded with not only her 'boss' but also two other people that she'd had the unfortunate time to work with in the past. There was a big gig coming up and they were just about demanding her help for it. Green eyes flicked over to where Niko was and her brows furrowed with how he looked. Was something wrong? Silence caused her to realize that the people on the other line were waiting for Tahra to speak so another sigh left her lips. "I can't right now, I've got something to take care of-" she was interrupted before she could say anything more by one of the other people. He was telling her how there wasn't a choice in the matter and how things would play out if she didn't help. Yadda, yadda, yadda. "Fine, but I'm starting tomorrow. You've got a few days anyway based on what you said and I have something more important to take care of today. I'll send you the information when I have it." Without waiting for a reply, she hung up and went back to the couch. The movie had started now but Niko didn't seem like he was very up to watching it, at least he didn't look that way. "Are you okay, Niko?"


"Yeah, that's easy enough to make. I know a good recipe that might go well with what you're making." Kaito spoke as he headed over to the fridge to pull out a couple of other ingredients that he was going to need to use. Thankfully he didn't have to completely make them from scratch as that would take much longer; Tahra really was like her own store or something with the variety of things she had. He pulled out two packets of mix and started mixing together the rest of the ingredients to enhance the flavor. As he was working on that, he glanced over to Sophie for a moment again and couldn't help but smile. "So what other hidden talents do you have, Sophie? Not many people that I know like cooking these days and thought I was odd for wanting to learn." Though living on his own he didn't really have a choice but to learn, not that he regretted it. It was something he happened to enjoy and always wanted to try new things when he could.

Livia Hayes
​

"Of course, we don't want to keep you from it. Just...we also don't want to get in trouble either." Livia mumbled the last little bit as she looked around, her thoughts already on what could happen if they wound up in the wrong area. It wasn't going to be pretty and there wasn't any leniency the higher ups would give them either if they were caught doing something they shouldn't. A chuckle caught her ear and she stared wide-eyed for a moment when she realized it was from Nicholas. He was...was that a smile on his face? Right as she thought it, his features turned back to their normal stoic look and it was gone as fast as it had come. Livia still stared at him though until Sahara's voice caught her ear next. Tearing her gaze away from the older hunter, she looked her partner over before settling her gaze on Mai. The woman almost dropped her phone in surprise, she must have been deep in thoughts or something. "So." Livia turned her gaze back to Nicholas as she waited for Mai to lead the way. "We were assigned here but were others assigned to go after the dragons again?"



"You ask a lot of questions." Nicholas quietly sighed at that but figured if he didn't answer at least some of them, she'd just keep asking others. "Yes, there are already some hunters that are going after the one under the name Kaito Iwasa. Due to the danger it presents of him being with the others, the group will be more experienced hunters than even myself. They will handle that so try not to think so much about it and just focus on your own task." His reply didn't help as much as Livia thought it would as it just brought about more questions.


"Why weren't you a part of that?" She ended up blurting out and almost instantly regretted it; the stare that Nicholas gave her was so cold and intense that it felt like it had pierced through her. Again though, as quickly as it had come it vanished before he shrugged.


"I do what I'm told, nothing more. I was told I wasn't experienced enough to go after the group of beasts so they set me to babysitting duty. I don't question their decision and neither should you. Now stop asking so many questions." Nicholas stepped away from the group now, just following behind a few feet silently. Livia felt a bit bad for asking now but she knew she couldn't say anything else just yet to him.


"Well." Scratching her head slightly, she wasn't entirely sure what to say now. "Where are we going first, Mai?"

 

[StarryKnights]

Sahara Cephres
​

Sahara frowned at how suddenly Nicolas had gotten, as Mai lead the group down the hall, she leaned down to whisper in Livia's ear. "Who pissed in his cheerios today?" she chuckled, but stopped as Mai paused at a door on the other end of the hall. Through the window, she saw a set of couches, a coffee machine as well as an assortment of snacks on a table, and a large flat screen tv. "This is the break room, you are welcome to it and the food within. You may converse with the other scientists here, as they are under strict confidentiality orders and are not permitted to talk about their work outside of the research labs" Mai said. That didn't stop them, but with outsiders about, even her boneheaded co workers knew better than to blab in front of outsiders, even if those were hunters. 


"If you'll follow me" Mai turned to hr left and headed down the hall there. The archway above the door was labeled "Testing" and the doors they passed lead to different labs and exam rooms. Some were full of people in white lab coats, like the one Mai wore. She kept her eyes forward as they walked. "This is the testing wing, and your not to enter any of these rooms" She said simply. Sahara frowned, as it looked like there was some cool stuff in these rooms. As they passed one door she caught a glimpse of what looked like a large gun before a curtain was pulled over down over the window. "There's a lot of high tech shit here huh Mai?" she called to the woman. Mai just nodded. 'Advanced technology you probably wouldn't understand" The faculity was a giant square, as they reached the end of the hall, there was anther hallway to their right, as well as a stairwell that lead both up and down in front of them. Mai headed upstairs, passing by a directory sign which read. LOWER LEVEL Containment Cells and Weapon Advancements UPPER LEVEL A Leisure Center.  "The leisure center is basically an entire room dedicated to staff, there are beds and private rooms here, and it's where you'll be staying" Mai explained. "Your not to go downstairs, doing so will result in severe punishment" 

Niko Medina and Sophie Stolts
​

Niko held his head in his hands and took a breath. "I'm fine...it'll pass..." he sighed. He wished he could control these spells, at least then they couldn't catch him by surprise. It was kinda humiliating for Niko, being reduced to this by something as simple as a head rush. "it happens sometimes...ever since..." he sat up slowly and leaned back on the couch. He felt semi dazed still, but he could feel the episode passing. The movie had started, but he was only partially paying attention. "...Ever since my scale was taken...sometimes these things happen. It could've been worse, sometimes it makes me hurl..." he grimaced and chuckled. Those were the worse of the worse, but thankfully they were far and few between. "...ideally, it won't happen when w...you know" He looked to Tahra. "...But...on the off chance it does happen...just run". He scratched the back of his head, thankful that the dazed feeling was gone now. "...Probably be better for me to be caught then you" They'd already taken from Niko, all they could really do is kill him, and it was better for that to happen to him than Tahra. If they failed and didn't get his scale back, he'd be dying anyway. No one knew how long a dragon with half a heart scale could survive, but some days, Niko was certain that tomorrow would be his last. He didn't see a reason for Tahra or anyone, to suffer in his stead, when his life had already been cut in half. 


Sophie blinked and chuckled. "Other talents...well" she thought for a moment. "Growing up I was involved in a lot of things...like cooking, and gymnastics...and art..." she paused, as she felt she was bragging about herself. "Living out in the country, there wasn't a whole lot to do, so I was always finding new things to keep me interested..." She smiled at Kaito. "My parents would make me practice controlling my powers and stuff to, so I'd never accidentally reveal myself to anyone...so" she turned back to the stove, adjusting the food in her pan. "I'm fairly decent at controlling my element, which makes life a bit more interesting" she looked to Kaito. "...Your a water dragon right...what sort of things can you do?" Sophie had never met a dragon of a different element before meeting Niko, and now she'd met one of every type. She was curious what her fellow dragons could do. Air dragons were masters of speed and flight, but were often frailer than other dragons. Sophie was small, light and athletic, a testament to her element, but she also had a weak constitution. In a fight, it would only take a few hits to ave her down, assuming a person could hit her. 


Niko was the opposite, as fire dragons were strong and stout, with endurance to spare. They used to live in volcanic mountains and caves, so they were used to a rougher environment. Even without his scale being in tact, Niko was stranger than the average man, Sophie had seen him pick up a man and throw him once. Of course, doing so had left the fire dragon so weak that Sophie had to take him home and tend to him for the next couple of days, but she knew that was because of his scale being fractured. That had been the first time Sophie had met Niko, it seemed like it was ages ago when he'd saved her from that mugger during her walk home. 


The thought brought a smile to Sophie's face.

 

[pyreshadow]

Tahra Casey and Kaito Iwasa
​

Tahra stared at the other dragon suspiciously, not quite believing that he was fine as he claimed. Slowly she sat back down next to him and continued to eye him a bit as he explained a bit about what was wrong. She'd never met another dragon that had part of his scale removed...not that she'd met very many dragons to begin with but Niko was still an exception by all standards. Of course, that was part of the reason that made him so interesting. "Sounds like loads of fun." There was a bit of sarcastic teasing in her tone, really hoping that he didn't have one of these episodes when they were in the process of getting his scale back. That would be a disaster just waiting to happen and it wouldn't be good for them. "Run?" Tahra repeated in slight surprise before a frown slowly began to form on her face. She definitely didn't like hearing that coming from him and for a moment, she wasn't even sure what to say. So she crossed her arms over her chest and sank back into the couch, staring mindlessly at the tv screen. It took several seconds before she actually found her voice again though the words she spoke surprised herself.


"I don't know if I can guarantee that." A hand came up to scratch the side of her face slightly before a small sigh left her lips. "There's a difference between you and I, Niko. I live in a world of shadows, where no one will miss me or even care if I die tomorrow. I live how I want to live but...I'm not supposed to have any sort of real interactions with people like this. The more someone gets to know me, the more likely they are to get hurt. So because this was my idea to begin with, I wouldn't feel right at all if I were to just run away and let something happen to you. I just can't do that. Whether you like it or not, I want to protect you and I'll make damn sure that you get your scale back in tact." There was a strong conviction in Tahra's tone that showed she wasn't going to allow Niko to talk her out of it.


The more that Sophie spoke of things she could do, the more Kaito felt pretty impressed and in a way envious. She had someone that helped teach her how to control her powers and she was able to live as normal a life as she possibly could. It was a dream of any dragon to have the kind of life that she did. There was a small smile on his face at the thought as he mixed up the potatoes and threw them all together in the pot now to get it finalized. "That's pretty impressive." Kaito commented, curious to see her powers in action himself but he knew he couldn't ask to see. In time, he probably would but now wasn't that time given the circumstances. Although, this was a pretty secure place so maybe. "Me?" The question turned to him sooner than he had expected and he couldn't help the smile as it grew a bit. "I had to master my power at a young age, I'm sure you can imagine why." Living on his own made things quite difficult when he was younger but if he ended up losing control and someone found out...it would have been a catastrophe. Water dragons were extremely versatile and though not as strong as fire, they were also quite good at turning someone's own energy against them. "Even without shifting, I can swim faster and hold my breath longer than humans can in the water. I can control the flow of water, draw humidity from the air, draw water out of plants, form a wall of ice for protection, just to name a couple of things. I wanted to be able to protect myself at all costs after what happened to my family, so I made sure that I could master all I knew. Though I'm sure there are still things that I don't know as well."


There were always things that he could learn, especially since he didn't have a proper teacher. It was all a guessing game for him and he wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to know if he knew all there was. Not that it mattered much since he was doing what he could. He was curious a bit more about Tahra's powers though; he'd never come across the other elements before, let alone hers but he knew a bit about it. Earth dragons were said to be strong and resilient, relying on strength and defense equally. Did Tahra have a mastery over her powers? A part of him thought that she would given her lifestyle but it wasn't something he knew for sure either.

Livia Hayes
​

The quick little tour that Mai had given them amounted to a lot of places that were off-limits and only a few places to explore. Good thing they were doing this now, Livia felt she might have accidentally wandered some place she shouldn't have. "Got it, don't go downstairs." Livia nodded in emphasis, knowing she wouldn't want to test that out at all...okay, a part of her did because she was curious about what was there but she certainly didn't want the punishment.


"Perhaps it would be best if you two get acquainted with your rooms. I have to go and speak with the director here about what's going on, so I will meet up with you all later. Mai, I will catch up with you later." Nicholas gave a quick nod before he turned and headed away from the group. Based on how he was walking, it was clear it wasn't his first time in the facility and soon enough he disappeared down another hall. Livia watched him walk off, wondering what it was that he needed to talk to the director about. She probably wouldn't get any answers but that didn't stop the questions from running around in her head.


"So Mai." Best to push them aside for now before she asked the wrong thing to the scientist. "Are you going to show up where our rooms are too or are we going to just wildly guess? I know you have to get to work and all...so maybe you could just tell us how to get there."

 

[StarryKnights]

Sahara Cephres
​

Mai nodded as Nicholas too his leave. Off to check in no doubt, she thought to herself. Sahara clapped her on the back, making the young girl jump again. "Good god stop doing that" Mai snapped at Sahara, who chuckled. "So, you want to answer my partner's question?" Sahara motioned to Livia. Mai turned to Livia, blinking. What had she asked...something about their rooms right? Mai had spaced off for a moment, she tended to do that often. "...I uh...will show you to your room..." She didn't want them wandering around, if they got themselves where they shouldn't be it would be trouble for Mai. "Follow me" Mai said as she headed upstairs to the guest quarters. Sahara fell in step behind Mai, but slowed down to talk to Livia. "this place is just crawling with all sorts of secrets huh?" she asked the other hunter. Sahara wanted nothing more than to peek into a room he shouldn't be in, but given the trouble they were already in, it was best to keep her head down. 




"But hey, with Nicholas here, perhaps we can get some one on one training?" she asked as she folded her hands behind her head. Mai lead the both of them upstairs, to the visitor's hall. "You can go anywhere on this floor, there's a gym, a small cafeteria and a recreation room" Mai said, looking to the both of them. "I imagine you'll be here during most of your sty...should you desire to practice your shooting, there is a target area outside. Ask one of the employees" She pointed to a woman walking by, wearing a navy blue uniform. "And they can take you to it, though you'll be using the guns provided, and won't be aloud to carry them around the facility" 

Niko Medina and Sophie Stolts
​

Niko blinked. He didn't like how stubborn Tahra was being. Perhaps she didn't think there was a chance of getting caught, or perhaps she under estimated the ruthlessness of the hunters. Niko wouldn't wish what they had done to him on anyone, and god only knew what had changed since his time there. He could tell he wasn't going to change her mind about this. "...Even if your live your life as a ghost...don't throw it all away for someone like me" he said simply as he turned his attention to the movie. The world would move on with him gone, if this little mission were to fail, Niko felt he'd be dead within a few years regardless. He didn't see his life as something worth another's sacrifice, however, he could tell Tahra wasn't going to be swayed. "...So...when this is all said and done...assuming we make it back alive..." he looked back to Tahra. "...Are you going to go back to your old life...?" Living a solitary lifestyle could be advantageous, when it came to both hiding and being some sort of a career criminal. Niko got the feeling Tahra lived her life in isolation due to both of these factors, but that wasn't any of his business. It seemed to have been working well for Tahra so far, who knows how things might've turned out if they'd never met. If they'd never met at all, and continued living their own little lives. Kaito wouldn't be stuck on the run, and Sophie and her family couldn't be at risk... Niko sighed and sank a little lower into the couch. "...Perhaps being alone is better..at least then we're smaller targets..."


He chuckled softly. Smaller targets, just waiting to be found. "...if something does happen to me..." he looked back to Tahra. "...Don't tell Sophie...okay...if she knew I was caught she'd just want to come after me and..." he shook his head. "...At least if she thinks I'm dead she won't try to chase me"


Sophie listened as she continued cooking. The other elements had always been fascinating to Sophie, but there wasn't much about them in this day and age. Both of her parents were air dragons, so of course she was expert there. Hybrid dragons weren't  thing, and as far as Sophie could find, they were never a thing. The dragons of old had banned relations between the elements, for fear of what the child would become. "...Even without shifting...I can fly, though I never do...tends to draw unwanted attention" She chuckled at the thought. "I can manipulate the oxygen in the air...I once nearly made my dad pass out while practicing..." she sighed, scratching the side of her neck as the memory came back. "My mother is really good at making illusions with the air, not too sure how she does it though...I never had the patience for it...I was always better with flight and speed" she smiled. "My dad taught me to apply my flight to other things..." she turned round and pointed at a towel hanging on a rack. A gust of wind swept it up and into the air, it then floated over to Sophie's outstretched hand. "Making dish rags float is what every little kid dreams of right?" she laughed.

 

[pyreshadow]

Tahra Casey and Kaito Iwasa
​

The more that Niko tried to say that she shouldn't sacrifice herself for him, the more Tahra wanted to make sure she protected him if she could. There was no way she was going to back down from doing what she could to help him. Of course, that was only if things went bad in the first place. "Hmm." It was the only thing that left her lips as she figured it wasn't best to continue the conversation at this point. He had his mind made about things and she had hers. When he changed the subject, Tahra turned to look him over for a moment before setting her gaze right back to the television screen again. The movie was watched minlessly and the truth was, she didn't even need to think about the answer before she knew it. "Smaller targets can be easier to hide but when against groups of hunters, it will lead to nothing but pain. If a dragon ends up caught of course." Tara shrugged, playing it off as if she had heard it from somewhere instead of knowing out of someone else's experience what happened.


"I think for your sake, which include's Sophie's and Kaito's, that it would be best if I didn't stay with you guys. I'm not a good person to try to be besties with, especially considering what I do for a living. There'd be more problems than just the hunters you'd have to worry about if I ever fucked something up." As much as she said that, a part of her was already wanting to stay with them. Finding dragons was rare, near impossible in this day and age. She didn't want to lose the chance of having dragons close to her again but...it was hard for her to agree to staying knowing they might be in danger because of her. "That being said, if something did happen to you, I'll keep my mouth shut about what happened. I promise." Now what she couldn't promise was not "accidentally" leaving her computer open saying what her plan of rescue was in a spot where Sophie could easily happen upon it. The girl would learn on her own what happened and Tahra would keep her promise. Technically. "Now why are you being all glum about this, anyway? You're close to getting your heartscale back, just start thinking a bit positively. Here, I'll even tell you a secret." Tahra grinned a little as she turned to face Niko. "You know how dragons can have their heartscales anywhere along their body, right? You want to know where mine is?" She was trying to bring things back to being light and not so tense, especially since she had her own opinion on what to do if something went wrong.


"You and I are in similar boats it seems. You can't fly and I couldn't swim, though I did love swimming when I was younger. We'd have both attracted too much attention doing that." Kaito chuckled a little at the thought as he already missed being in the water. It wasn't often he could go swimming but even to today, he still loved it. As Sophie continued with a bit more of what she could do, Kaito looked her over again with a growing smile. One that quickly turned into a grin when she drew the towel close to her by manipulating the wind here. "So you'd be good at drying the dishes and I'd be good at washing them then. What a good pair we make." Kaito chuckled at the thought again, though this time it was more because he imagined them doing just that. Him using his power to get the dishes washed and her drying them once he was done. Not exactly the best or most fun thing to think about but it was funny regardless. Turning back to the pot, he mixed the potatoes just a bit more before turning off the fire. "The mashed potatoes are all ready. How much more do you need for the chicken fried steak?"

 

[StarryKnights]

Niko Medina and Sophie Stolts
​

Niko arched an eyebrow at Tahra, as far as he was concerned, being around Tahra was no more dangerous than well...being a dragon. Being what they were painted a big red target onto their backs. It didn't matter what a dragon did, once they were found out, the hunters would track them relentlessly, until they were dead or captured. It didn't matter if you lived your life peacefully, never so much as harming a fly. Being a dragon was grounds for death, or brutal experimentation. He hoped that Tahra, Sophie and Kaito never had to experience the pain and suffering that he had. he still had nightmares about his time in captivity, as he sat there and debated with Tahra, that was at the back of his mind. He could tell he wasn't going to change her mind, something that troubled the fire dragon deeply. He could only hope that noting went wrong. He didn't want Tahra getting caught...but he knew one things. Regardless of the danger, he'd fight through hell to save her if something went wrong. Dragons were too rare in this day and age to allow one to remain a prisoner. He was certain Sophie and Kaito would agree with him, though he wasn't keen on letting either of them get hurt. 


The change in subject brought a bunch of new thoughts to his head. Sure, Tahra was involved in some shady shit, but that didn't phase Niko in the slightest. He might not have been a career criminal, but his hands weren't clean. he'd done some things he wasn't proud of, he'd lied, stolen and even killed... The memory was an unpleasant one, so he shook his head to chase it away. Despite what Tahra thought, Niko didn't see her as a threat to his safety. "...Whatever shit your into Tahra...it doesn't scare me...nor does the underground world you belong to..." he chuckled. "I mean, I'm not a saint, not sure about Kaito, and Sophie...well she is" he smirked. "...But whatever it is, I'm sure we can handle it" Or they would learn, because it was safer for them to stick together. It was so hard to find a fellow dragon in this day and age, he didn't want to lose Tahra. Once again, the subject jumped and Niko's eyes lit up with mild curiosity. "...Sure, you show me yours I'll show you mine" he chuckled, wondering if maybe he'd get lucky and Tahra's would be somewhere near the fun bits. He knew Sophie's was, she'd turned bright red when he'd said the same thing to her. She'd refused of course, and called him a perv for his trouble. 


Sophie chuckled. "I mean, most people can't fly, so I can't say there was ever a chance for me to fly and not freak people out..." she grinned as she worked. "I debated it a few times, just to really scare people, but I never did" she sighed. "But it would've been fun to see the look on my school yard bully's face, just to fl up into the air once..." she laughed at the thought. That would'e made Tyler leave her alone...


The food was nearly done, and Sophie couldn't wait to dig into it, though she didn't look forward to doing the dishes. She burst out laughing at Kaito's suggestion. "When we're done eating, perhaps we should test your theory" she smiled at him, trying to hide her excitement over the fact he'd said they'd make a good pair. Sure, he meant washing and drying dishes, Sophie heard pair for life. She could be such a air head when it came to things like romance. "I'm nearly done here, you should find some plates...and paper towels, so we can let the food drain before we eat"

 

[pyreshadow]

Tahra Casey and Kaito Iwasa
​

Green eyes narrowed slightly, though whether it was from doubt or shock it was hard to tell. Either Niko was more dense to the kind of work than Tahra had originally thought or he really thought it would be fine and dandy for her to still be around them despite her hacking. A part of her was actually pretty happy about the fact that he wasn't scared of her or what she did; the only problem was, he should be. She may not work officially for any agency but she did often work close to one; that meant that at any point in time if she messed up, they'd attempt to find and kill her. Which meant that if she was near Niko, Sophie, and Kaito then they'd be in danger as well. The thought was troubling and caused her to bite her inner lip as she glanced to the side. Lucky for her, Niko seemed to be actually interested in where her heartscale was. A grin grew on her lips as she let out a chuckle of her own before standing up from the couch. Her pants were pulled down to about her thighs and she turned slightly so that she could show her right hip.


A set of scales were along her hip and a part of her thigh, ranging from a lighter green color near the outside and growing darker the closest it got to the center scale. The center scale was much larger than the rest, shining brightly even against the dim light in the room. Even though it shone in the light, it was a dark forest green color that contrasted the other lighter shades of scales surrounding it. "This is my heartscale." Her fingers traced over the larger scale proudly, a large smile on her face as she looked it over briefly before drawing her attention back to Niko. "This marks the first time that I've actually shown it to someone before. That's a story for another time though. Pretty cool, right? Kind of an awkward spot since I can't wear skirts or shorts or anything, at least not the shorter ones without it being seen." Tahra shrugged her shoulders, not really bothered by that any more since she had long since gotten used to it. No thanks to her would be parents of course but she really didn't want to think about that. "You want to show me yours once we get your scale back?"


"Why not? It might be fun to be able to freely use our powers for once." Kaito hadn't been completely serious when he suggested making her work since he was always one to think the cook shouldn't clean. Unless of course they were alone, then that made sense but they weren't. Kaito didn't want to make her do even more work than she'd already done so far. Still, he couldn't help but smile at the thought either since it had made her laugh like that. Even as she suggested finding plates and paper towels, he couldn't help but look her over for a moment longer. "You know, you have a cute laugh. It suits you." Why he actually said that out loud instead of leaving it in his head, he wasn't quite sure. Since it had come out though, he turned back to the stove pretty quickly to turn the heat to low. Then he turned to the cupboards and began peeking in to them for the plates. It didn't take long before he found some and pulled four out for them. It took a little longer to find the paper towels since they were underneath the sink but he pulled it out next, along with four cups for them. The cups and plates were put on the side of the stove for now to divvy up the food first. "All right, I think we're all set. Shall I go get the other two while you finish up?"

 

[StarryKnights]

Niko Medina and Sophie Stolts
​

Niko chuckled at the look Tahra gave him after he said he didn't find being around her dangerous. He couldn't tell if it was shock, doubt or both, but that hardly mattered. He'd meant what he said, regardless of what Tahra did for a living, he didn't see it as a reason not to stick around her. She was interesting, and with her technology and hacking, she was able to keep one step ahead of their enemies. It was foolish not to keep her around, but he kept that to himself. Instead, he watched as she stood and pulled down her shorts, he couldn't help the stupid grin that came to his face as he thought for a split second he was about to get a show. However much to his disappointment, Tahra's scale was further down on her leg, no where near anything exciting. However, seeing the forest green scale brought back memories. It was a sign of trust, to show another your heart scale, and this wasn't the first time Niko had seen one on another dragon. Though, that had been a long time ago. He smirked as Tahra asked whether or not he'd show her his scale once it was in tact. "Hell, Ill show you now, after all, its only fair" he said as he grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up and over his head.


Located smack dab over his heart, Niko's heart scale was surrounded by a set of rusty red colored scales, that grew larger the closer they got to the scale. They all seemed to glow in the dim light, and if one was close enough, they'd feel they gave off a small amount of heat. The scale at the center had seen better days however. Once a bright, radiant red, Niko's heart scale was now in a pale, sickly state, almost devoid of color entirely. the edges were black, and tendrils of the color snaked it way down, to the jagged end that showed where the scale had been broken and a piece pulled off. Some of the smaller scales were missing toward the bottom half, leaving behind patches of inflamed skin. The fractured heart scale itself appeared to be loose, as though it could come off at any time. All in all, it was a far cry from Tahra's scale, looking down at it Niko traced the jagged line left behind by the hunters, doing so caused the scale to move slightly, which made Niko grimace in pain "It gets better every time I look at it" he chuckled humorlessly, looking up to Tahra. Niko's exposed chest and shoulders also bore signs of his time with the hunters, his tanned skin was marred by a variety of scars, varying in thickness and length. As he grabbed his shirt and pulled it back over his head, he sighed. "It used to be a bright red color...and it put off heat, but now..." he shrugged. "I'm surprised it hasn't just fallen off to be honest" In spite of the danger they faced, the prospect of getting his scale back was too great for Niko to ignore. The fire dragon knew full well if something wasn't done, he'd die. 


Sophi blinked, and blushed as Kaito complimented her. "I, uh...thank you" she laughed, nervously before busying herself with finishing up dinner. That had come out of nowhere, and it had her heart racing a mile a minute. As Kaito found the things she'd asked for, Sophie finished cooking. All that was left now was to plate and eat. Honestly though she wasn't even sure she was hungry anymore, she had butterflies in her stomach. "yeah...uh, I'll plate, you go get the other two" she stammered, without looking at him. She didn't want him to see how red she was. Get it together Sophie, she told herself mentally as she took a deep breath. It was just a compliment, no reason to shut down mentally and turn into a blushing, emotional mess...