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Rick heard a loud click as the key he fed into the lock turned, the simple finished wooden door opening soon after. The hinges creaked as the Draconian slowly opened the door and peeked inside, looking around the empty room before he made the gap big enough for him to slide through. Once he was inside he closed the door and locked it behind him, breathing heavily as he put his scaled head against the warm wood of the door. It had only been a few hours since he had entered into the country of Tierana, and only a week before that he had been human who struggled desperately to get inside the country's gates. It seemed like ages ago he had accepted the help of a mysterious benefactor named 'Shadowscales' and was then imprisoned, transformed, and consequently released with an entirely new identity as Talvin Dysono.

As he slowly walked into the living room of the furnished apartment he noted that it wasn't far unlike what he had at home, aside from the furniture being a little sturdier and much nicer it was like he had walked into his old home in the human city. When he walked up the two stairs that led to the kitchen area he heard a deep scratching sound and looked down to see that he had pressed he toe talons a little too hard and had dug small furrows into the wood. "Great, two minutes in and I already lost my security deposit." Rick said to himself, chuckling despite the situation. "I can see why there are no Draconian shoes."

When he finally got to his fridge and opened the door he found it filled with food, something that he was extremely grateful for before he pulled out several items for himself to prepare. His appetite had not diminished much since the prison, and even after he had stopped at several food vendors to sample their wares he still found himself famished. While he would have continued his culinary adventure he didn't want to eat his entire bank account in one day so he decided to go home and make something for himself. After almost a half an hour he had prepared a sandwich that he dared called a masterpiece and was so large that even with his larger hands he had slight trouble wrapping them around it.

Just before his teeth could sink into the thick, soft bread there was a knock at the door that caused him to pause. He glanced between his food and the door a few times before he sighed and put the sandwich down and walked towards the door, nearly tripping down the stairs as he did so. When he opened the door he found a blue and purple-scaled Draconian standing there with a big grin on his face. "Hey, saw the movers come by a few days ago and was wondering when I got to meet our new neighbor." He said as he reached out and shook Rick's hand. "My name is Kartur, I live in the apartment across from you."

"Hi Kartur, I'm... Talvin." Rick replied, mentally slapping himself for almost saying his real name to the friendly male. "Yeah, I just got back into the country today."

"Oh, out amongst the humans were we?" Kartur said with a chuckle. "I hear that quarantine procedure they have when you come back can put you through the ringer. Well I have to get going, just heard you coming in as I was leaving and wanted to introduce myself and say welcome to the neighborhood!"

Rick just nodded and waved back to the other Draconian as he walked down the hall to the elevator, then shook his head as soon as he was out of sight. Once he closed the door and made sure it was locked again he went back up to his kitchen, this time far with far more grace, and sat down in front of his still-warm sandwich. He rubbed his scaly hands together before he dug his claws in once more, ready to devour every last bite.

This time before he could even lift up his prize though his phone rang, his reptilian nostrils flaring in annoyance before he looked at the screen and saw it was a blocked number. He immediately grabbed for the device, which nearly slipped out of his claws before he secured it and pressed the talk button. "We have a change of plans, we need to bring you in immediately." The familiar voice said on the other side of the line. "There will be a taxi that drives up to your building in precisely two minutes, you are expected to hop into it as soon as it pulls in so you can get here."

Before Rick could even say anything the line went dead and the screen changed from active call to his countdown clock that began to tick down from two minutes. The newly minted Draconian looked forlornly at his sandwich before he grabbed the plate and shoved it into the fridge, then ran out of his apartment and down the stairs when he saw that the elevator was still at the ground floor. When he finally got down to the bottom he heard his pocket start to buzz as the clock on his phone hit zero. He nearly knocked someone over as he made his way to the glass doors where he could see the taxi parked there on the side of the street. By the time he got into the vehicle and closed the door he was completely out of breath, something he didn't even think could happen to Draconians as the car sped away from the building.

"You're late." The cab driver said, Rick managing to mutter out an apology in reply. "I wouldn't worry about it this time, he sets a rather harsh time limit for your first time, but he keeps us on a clock for a reason. Helps to make you aware that when he says something at a certain time you better do it right away."

Rick just nodded and sat back once he regained his composure, feeling embarrassed and confused at the same time. While he was extremely grateful for the opportunity to get into the city he wondered just how much of his new life they expected to control. The unfortunate thing was it was them who gave it to him in the first place, which meant that they could just as easily take it away from him if they wanted. The consequences of his actions had started to weigh on him and he didn't realize how far they had gotten until the cab driver suddenly stopped and told him that he had arrived at their destination.

As soon as Rick got out of the car it almost immediately sped away to the point where it almost hit his tail. Even though it had been almost a day since he had gotten it the new Draconian still didn't quite have the new appendage down, something that he hoped others wouldn't notice as he made his way through the location that he had been dropped off at. There was nothing that told him where he needed to go next, but as he started to head towards a nearby restaurant a red-scaled dragon man bumped into him and caused him to drop his things. Rick quickly dropped down to pick up the paper that the other man had dropped but when he came back up with it along with an apology he found that they were gone.

Perhaps this was his next step, Rick thought to himself as he opened the paper and saw that there was an earpiece inside of it. With nothing else to go on he put it in his ear and almost immediately heard the crackle of static on the other end of the line that caused him to jump slightly. "Looks like you made it," the voice said, this one deeper and more gravely than the one he had heard on the phone. "Welcome to the Central Plaza."

"What's going on?" Rick asked as he looked around to see if there was anyone looking at him. "Who is this?"

"A friend of Shadowscales," the voice replied. "I'm your point man for this next mission. First thing I need you to do is take out your phone and remove the battery, last think you need is being traced by your number while you figure out what you're doing."

Rick started to feel like he was in a spy movie as he checked through his pockets until he found his phone, quickly popping open the back and taking out the battery before putting it back. "Good, now the next think you need to do is meet our handler," the voice instructed. "We currently have him manning an ice cream trolley that is near the city, go to it and tell him that you want the dragonfruit special."

Definitely a spy movie, Rick said as he tried not to sigh when he went over to the ice cream stand he saw on the corner. Despite the seriousness of the situation he was still starving and he knew that his sandwich was currently just sitting on the counter drying out while waiting to be eaten. It didn't help that when he went up to the vendor he saw that the man was selling actual ice cream, but despite wanting to get one himself he did what he was told. The other dragon eyed him up before he went to a different section of the cart and pulled out a backpack, the leather material still freezing cold as he handed it to him and told him to have a nice day.

"All this for a backpack?" Rick muttered as he slung it over his shoulder.

"That backpack you're carrying right now is worth about three million in equipment," the voice replied, which prompted Rick to stop and look at it. "It's extremely sensitive too, so I would appreciate it if you don't throw it around. The main component is a data harvesting device that will lock onto the servers of the Draconian government and download everything we need to know about their latest plans, but due to the security scans we normally wouldn't be able to get close to it unless we smuggled it in a shielded case."

"So the cart was just a way to get it close," Rick stated. "Not sure why you had to actually freeze it, I think it's burning my back scales."

"Helps keep it off the temperature sensors long enough to do the job," the voice explained. "Now your job is to get the backpack as close as you can to the reception desk and then leave within two minutes, then come back ten minutes later and pick it up again. Better hurry, the longer you have it the more you're exposed."

Rick grumbled as he went into the building that he had been guided to, which turned out to be the social services building, and as he went inside he wondered what he had gotten himself into. All he wanted to do was get into the city of Tierana because there was work, but not only had he had to give up his humanity but also become a spy in order to get past the gates. He wasn't quite sure he was cut out for this line of work, though at this point he knew that Shadowscales would probably point out that he didn't have a lot of choice in the matter. Not only was his identity in their hands but everything that they had given to him could be taken away if they decided he was no longer useful, and if they kicked him to the curb than he would be a nameless Draconian in an unfamiliar city.

The sound of a crying child quickly snapped the dragon out of his thoughts and Rick realized he had walked straight into the main lobby of the building without even thinking about it. There was one Draconican that sat in the front desk while a number of others were sitting in nearby chairs of the rather cramped space. When he whispered to try and ask where he should place the backpack he got nothing but static on the other end that basically told him he was on his own. Alone and with a backpack with three million in treason on his back... Rick tried not to tremble as he made his way towards the front desk while thinking of a reason for him to be there.

His presence had not gone unnoticed however and as he was called up to the receptionist desk and asked what he needed all Rick could think of was ask if this was the main courthouse building. The other Draconian rolled her eyes and told him that this was a satellite building and the courthouse was a few blocks down the street. Rick thanked her and knew that his time was running out, both on the clock that he had been given and this woman's patience. As he thanked her and began to walk away he noticed that she had turned away from him to answer a call, which gave him a brief respite in order to try and ditch the backpack and get out of there as he looked for a place to hide it.

Rick's eyes noticed a large potted plant near the reception desk and saw the base was large enough that the backpack might go unnoticed, and as he pretended to admire the leaves of the large plant, feeling foolish as he did so, he pushed out the heavy clay pot with his foot and as nonchalantly as he could pushed the backpack into the space. While it wasn't exactly hidden it wasn't exposed either and with the receptionist wrapping up her phone call it was time for him to leave anyway. He walked out as quickly as he could without arousing suspicion and nearly bumped into two children that ran inside with their beleaguered mother right behind them as he kept the door open for her before slipping out himself.

Once Rick was outside of the building and to the next street he sighed and gave himself a second to let his heart stop racing while he looked around to make sure he wasn't followed. "Hey, I think Shadowscales and I might need to have a talk," Rick said quietly as he faced away from the building he had just bugged, not wanting to go far in order to pick up the backpack again in ten minutes. "I know that he brought me here but I'm not cut out for this, maybe he could find something else that I could do instead of the cloak and dagger?"

When there was no response on the other end of the line Rick tapped the device in his ear with the tip of the claw. He tried several more times and each time all he got on the other end of the line was dead air. "Hey, are you guys listening to me?" Rick said with rising anger in his voice. "I'm not saying I don't want to work for you, I just don't think-"

Rick was suddenly pushed forward as a loud explosion rocked the entire area, the Draconian falling forward as his ears rang from the sound as he laid there on the ground in a daze. With his hearing gone everything around him felt like he was listening to it underwater as he willed his aching muscles to turn himself around and slowly get up. Fortunately the sturdy build and tough scales of his new body made him more resilient, but as he started to hear sounds once more he turned around completely and his jaw dropped. The source of the explosion... it was the building he had just been in, chunks of debris still raining down around it as people were shouting and screaming around him.

Holy shit...

Shadowscales is a terrorist...

As he got to his feet Rick could feel something leaking from his ears and when he brought his fingers up he found that the device inside of it had broken in the explosion, though it was who was on the other line that prompted him to practically rip it out and throw it to the ground. A few seconds later though he realized it was a direct link to Shadowscales and his role in all this, along with his blood, and he quickly scooped it back up before walking down the street away from the site of the explosion. In the chaos and confusion he managed to slip away just as sirens could be heard on the location and Rick found himself in full survival mode as he made his way back to his apartment. While it was something that had been given to him by Shadowscales he had nowhere else to go and everything inside of it was all he had in the world, something that was no doubt on purpose as he walked briskly back to the residential district where he lived.

It took him nearly three hours but he managed to make it back home, trying to take back streets when he could and also getting lost several times. The entire way he walked all he could think about was how he had managed to get himself wrapped up in all this, though that slowly ebbed into guilt as the gravity of the situation dawned on him. Even before he got back home he heard that there were multiple fatalities and as Rick closed his eyes he could remember them all sitting in the chairs or playing around in the case of the younger ones. The realization had caused him to throw up and for once he was grateful for the empty stomach as little came out before he continued to walk once more.

When he finally got to his apartment area he was relieved to find that there were no security forces waiting for him, unsure of what sort of surveillance the Draconian empire had. If they had a way to see the security tapes from inside that lobby he was as good as dead, it would only be a matter of time, and even without them he had lingered around enough that people might identify him. Plus there was the possibility that Shadowscales just brought him in to be the fall guy and that meant that they were just one call away from putting him back in jail. The only thing that didn't make sense though was why go through all the trouble of smuggling him in just to have him go down for this?

Questions continued to swirl around in Rick's head as he slogged his way up to his apartment, but before he could get inside he sighed inwardly as he saw his neighbor Kartur coming up the opposite direction with a bag of groceries. "Oh hey Talvin," the other Draconian said as Rick sighed inwardly at hearing his fake name. "Did you hear the news?"

"Yeah, I heard about it," Rick replied, trying not to sound neither annoyed or angry as he attempted to get out of the conversation as soon as possible. "Sounds crazy."

"Right?" Kartur stated as he held the groceries in one hand while fishing out his keys in the other. "I'll tell you what, if I was ever involved in something like that the first thing I would want to do is call my family and tell them that I'm alright. You got any family in the city?"

"Oh... no, not really," Rick said as he got to the door and opened it as quickly as possible. "Hey, I'm really tired from work so I'm going to hit the hay. It was nice chatting with you."

"You too!" Kartur replied. "Don't be a stranger now."

If there was more that the Draconian said after that Rick didn't hear it as he practically slammed the door shut behind him. As he went over to his kitchen he saw the sandwich that had been left out, but at the moment he didn't feel like eating as he went to his couch and slumped down. What was he going to do, he thought to himself as he pressed his scaly hands against his muzzle. Even though Kartur was a bit annoying he had brought up the valid point that he didn't have any family or friends in the city and he was basically alone with no one to call..."

Suddenly Rick realized that he had disabled his phone and quickly fished it out of his pocket, putting the battery in as fast as he could before snapping the case back into place. While he didn't have any family perhaps he could call the authorities and try to get a deal in exchange for giving up Shadowscales, or maybe he could find a way to get out of the city before the heat came down on him. He thought briefly about the human embassy before he looked down at himself and realized that probably wouldn't work out for him, but as the screen came to life he was surprised as a number of notifications came up on the screen all at once. They were all from a blocked number and the first one was a set of coordinates, then the second was asking why he wasn't going there, and the following messages were ones of increasing urgency asking him what he was doing...

"That's... not good..." Rick said to himself as he got to the end where it was just all capital letters asking what he was doing. With the number blocked there was no way to respond but before he could even think of what to do it started to ring in his hands which quickly prompted him to answer it. "Hello?"

"We got played," the familiar voice of Shadowscales said. "As of this moment authorities are aware of your location and are heading your way to arrest you for the bombing, and since you're looking at the death penalty I doubt that you were in league with whomever prompted you to do this. You have exactly one minute and thirty seconds to grab your go bag, get out of your apartment and jump through the second-floor common area window closest to the counters, and this time the clock really does count."

The line suddenly went dead once more and Rick felt more adrenaline get dumped into his system, especially when he could already start to hear the sirens starting to approach the area. Fortunately he had kept everything important in a bag in his bedroom, which was one of the first things that he had been told to do by Shadowscales, and after making one more quick stop he rushed out the door and headed to the second floor common area. When he looked at his phone to see what time it was he was surprised to find that a countdown timer was already on it and told him that he only had about twenty seconds left. There was no one else using the space, which was a good thing as he went over to the window to open it and found that it was locked.

Panic began to set in for Rick as the phone in his hand started to flash with an angry red color as it clicked over to ten seconds, and with nothing else he could do in time he took a few seconds to back himself up before crashing through the glass right as the timer hit zero. For a few brief seconds he was suspended in midair as he wondered if he had just made the right choice or he was about to be labeled as a suicide to tie up the bombing case, but just as he was about to hit the ground he landed on something soft and bouncy instead. Rick still banged up against a few of the metal walls of the large hauler truck that he had landed in but as it continued to drive down the alley he eventually settled into the padding underneath while he watched the slid slowly slide over the opening until he was left in total darkness...