New Possibilities
#19 of Rising Downfall
Another chapter done. Introducing a new teammate.
Once we had gotten back to the Hawk Academy, we immediately reported what had happened to Shadow including Bradley slitting Ranger's throat and killing him. Shadow was utterly disappointed at that fact. As punishment, Bradley was suspended from our team for a while. The bad news was we were one member short. I didn't pay that any mind. I was hoping we would get our minds off of what happened. Maybe his time off the team will make him think about what he has done.
While we were hanging around the Hawk Academy entrance, we took the time to get to know one another to establish friendship and to build up our team morale.
"It was pretty messed up what Bradley did," Elgris said. "I still can't get over that."
"Yeah, it went against all protocols," Tyrone said, shaking his head. "Maybe some time away from the team will do him good."
"Perhaps or perhaps not," Tirela said completely unconvinced. "We won't know until we see later on. Even then, I'm not looking forward to it."
Tirela did have a point there. It's too early to be certain if Bradley will change.
I stood against the wall with my arms folded completely lost in thought about stuff. My head was just swimming with thoughts and it's actually hard to put in words here what I was thinking during the time. To my surprise, Tirela poked my arm and I looked at her.
"What are you thinking about, Captain?" she asked me with a smile.
"Oh... Um... N-Nothing important," I replied back. What was wrong with me? Why was I sounding flabbergasted? Was it because I was talking to her? Well, as I stated in the last chapter, she was attractive. There was something about her...like I knew all about her. Is it true that it's destiny that she and I met? There was only way to find out. There was something I was sensing from her and I had to ask her. "You're part dragon, aren't you?"
She blinked as she looked away and then she turned back to me and nodded.
"So are you," she replied back. She could sense it as well. We were appearing as humans but deep down we were seeing each other as dragons. I could tell we were very much alike.
"How could you tell?" I decided to ask her.
"Y-You don't want to know that."
"But I do. I'm curious. If you want, I can tell you how I knew you were part dragon."
She nodded at me. "Sure."
"Well" - I blushed in mid-sentence - "I could tell by your eyes."
This caused her to blush as well. Then, I heard her giggle at me.
"That has got to be the worst pick-up line I have ever heard a guy say to me," she was still giggling. "But, the same could be said about you. I could just look at you and I could feel it. I don't know how, but...it's just is." It seems like she was just as conflicted as I was. How did we both know we were part dragons? "But there is a twist: I was mainly born a dragoness but I have acquired a human form to try to...fit in. But, my human form is pretty unstable. That means I can only be as this form for a certain amount of time." As I listened to her I was seeing that she was glowing and she slowly shifted to her dragon form. She was still wearing the armor and outfit and it still fits her perfectly. Her scales were yellow and her wings stretched out behind her. I guess she prefers being anthropomorphic than being feral. Sometimes it does get a little uncomfortable always walking on all fours. "Oh, dear. It seems like I had reached my limit. That's okay. I prefer being a dragoness anyway."
I didn't say anything as I was still staring at her and taking in her form. She looked absolutely beautiful. She looked gorgeous as a human and she looked stunning as a dragoness. I literally thought my heart skipped a beat when I looked at her
She noticed me staring and she smiled softly at me.
"What do you think? Do I look okay to you?"
I blinked as I realized what she asked me and I nodded.
Without thinking I said, "You look better than okay..."
All she did was smirk at me. I didn't realize up until now that I was now flirting with her. My face had turned really red and I tried to hide it. She just chuckled and approached me slowly with a smile on her face.
"Aww, there's nothing to be embarrassed about, Captain."
I turned back to her and I just nodded.
"Well...if you're okay with it... You want to do something sometime?" I was taking a shot here. I needed to get to know her more.
She smiled at me and she folded her arms.
"Well, you seem like an honest guy... Sure, why not?"
I couldn't help but smile with her. I was so looking forward to spending time with her. With our conversations and flirting, I forgot that Tyrone and Elgris were there as well.
"Are you two lovebirds having fun over there?" Elgris said to us and we both blushed.
"Completely forgotten about the rest of your team, eh?" Tyrone chuckled at us and we both shook our heads.
"No, we were just getting to know one another," I replied to them.
"So we've overheard," Elgris chuckled and shakes her head.
I let out a sheepish chuckle as I heard some footsteps behind me. I turned around to see that it was Shang approaching and it looked like he was carrying something in his mouth.
"Who's that?" Tyrone asked.
"It's my friend, Shang," I said to them as I walked over to him and kneeled down in front of him. He had a brown paper bag in his mouth and I took it from him. "What's this, Shang?"
"It's your lunch, master," he said to me. "We all helped packed it for you. I, of course, ate the scraps that were left."
"No wonder you're gaining some pounds."
"Y-You calling me fat?"
"I didn't say you were skinny, either." I chuckled at him and he gave me a pouty face. He grumbled to himself but then he chuckled with me. "Thank you, Shang." I smiled as I reached out to pet his head. He had the silliest expression on his face with his tail rolled out of his mouth.
"Ooh, behind the ears... That's the spot," he whined out with his tail thrashing around on the ground.
"Aww, he's so cute!" I heard Elgris say behind me as she comes over along with Tirela and Tyrone.
"He's really big for a wolf," Tyrone said with his arms still folded.
"Indeed I am big and I know I'm irresistible to the ladies," Shang replied with a smirk. This caused all of us to face palm at the same time.
"Oh great. We're dealing with a comedian here."
I started to laugh but then something got my attention.
"Tyrone, how are you able to understand Shang without a Wolf Seed?" I asked him.
"I guess that's a special ability that's been passed down in my family for generations. I guess you can say I have a connection to animals."
"Wow, that's pretty cool," Elgris said in a cheerful tone. "Believe it or not, I'm part panther. My parents said I didn't need to have a Wolf Seed to talk to feral animals. It just came natural to us."
It was really cool to get to know everyone. All of us were unique in our own ways and it helps us greatly in battle and in life. We were all still conversing and having a good time until we saw Shadow approach us once again.
"Sorry about the wait, team," he started to say. "I was working with the other Captains on recruiting a temporary replacement for Bradley." We all stood at attention while he spoke and I could actually see someone approaching behind Shadow as he spoke. "I'd like to introduce you to your temporary member: Henry Kafel." The person that was approaching came into full view. He wore the outfit like us and he had a black scarf on his neck. His hair was pointy, pointier than mine, and his hair color was a mixture of purple and black.
He looked at all of us and he smiled. "Hello everybody," he spoke in a calm voice with an innocent expression. "I look forward to being part of your team...even if it is only for a short while."
All of greeted him back with warm smiles but he got the "unconvinced glare" from Shang. A few minutes later after Henry got himself settled, Grazar and Shang pulled me to the side before I left to have a quick word with me.
"I don't like that guy," Shang muttered softly as his ears twitched.
"This kid could spell trouble for us, Guil," Grazar added in who wasn't as convinced that Henry was a good guy as Shang. I just folded my arms and shook my head.
"It's a little too quick to decide if someone is an ally or not, boys," I said to them.
"Do you doubt us?"
"I didn't say that. I'm just saying you guys are quickly jumping to conclusions."
"Well, just...keep an eye on him, master," Shang said with a whimper. "He still doesn't sit right with me or Grazar."
I nodded at them and simply smiled. "Understood."
I returned inside the building to get suited up. We were going to the mountains up north. There have been reports from the Shiver Village that the Masked Eagles were up to something up there and we intend to find out what. Nobody is a big fan of the cold in Hawktown so we were in coats, scarfs, boots, hats, and mittens. We were even allowed to be armed with some simple M16s and Bear Commanders. Tyrone was even equipped with a nice M25 sniper rifle. I hope he was a good shot because we're going to need all of the skills we have and the weather will not be on our side. We had to walk and climb up there so we wouldn't arouse any suspicion to anybody, especially the Masked Eagles. The weather was really intense and there was a blizzard every other second. We had to huddle close together just to stay warm as if we were penguins. It feels like we were climbing Mt. Everest.
We climbed up the mountain more and we saw something out of the ordinary: There was a base that looked like it was lodged into the mountain. This must be our destination. We walked in slowly and we saw Masked Eagles everywhere moving equipment in and out of the base and there was one thing that really caught our attention. There was a huge red and purple missile aimed upwards that a couple of Eagles were working on. From my jurisdiction, I say that's a very huge nuclear missile. We cannot allow them to fire it. Our mission is to disarm that thing to make sure it's never to be fired again.
We were making our way around to the missile when Elgris was getting ready to sneeze.
"Ah... Ahh... Ahhh..." She rose her head up with her eyes squinted and her mouth wide open. Our eyes went wide as Tirela immediately rose up and pressed her finger under her nose to stop the sneeze. "Phew... Thanks, Tirela."
She smiled and gave a thumbs up as a "you're welcome". We were going well...until this time, Tyrone sneezed rather loudly. We all slapped our foreheads as the Eagles turned to us and started firing on us. It was a good thing that we were behind cover as the bullets continued to make contact with the steel crates. We immediately started firing back. It was 5 against hundreds of them and we were really pinned down. Luckily, Tyrone took the perfect time to sneak around them and he opens up a little hatch on the side of the missile and started rewiring things. Within' a few minutes later, we saw the huge missile lower to the ground. He managed to disarm it! Now the only thing we had to do was to get out of here. We made a break for the exit. On the way out, Henry planted some C4s around the base and pressed the button once we got out. The C4s went off and there were many explosions around the site as it suddenly burst into flames and the base started to collapse. Luckily, some snow rushed down on top of the base and on the missile to keep it from exploding and causing a nuclear radiation.