Joey sits in awe at the monitors, and Kyle looks around in the VR projection, the golem eye slowly tracking in tandem. "Mother of Gaia, Josephine. They built this under a school?"

The entryway opens up to a bunker-style setup of concrete slab and blue-white, sterile lighting on the inside, and the corridor slopes downward. Bracings of steel girders line the wall, and even the occasional potted plant adorns the large hallway–it’s almost big enough for a dragon. A throw rug adorns the entryway to a small barracks-style room. There are bunk beds furnished with simple but comfortable linens, and pictures of people's families adorn a small vanity set to one side. A common area next to it has game consoles, a TV, and a few personal effects and devices. All untended, and left as if they were in a hurry.

“These creeps treated this place as a home away from home,” Drenar growls just ahead of the golem. “Just another day job for them. This is so beyond the pale, given what they’ve been doing.”

“There are many in the Talons who believe the mage government is corrupt, Drenar. Some who believe that action like this is the only recourse,” Nick offers softly. He sweeps the room and grabs laptops and memory sticks. Drenar and the others do the same, while Joey observes and Kyle sits next to her in uncomfortable silence.

“There’s always a choice, Nick. People get the government that they work to create. I haven’t exactly been filled with confidence that the Conclave is doing their job.”

“You’ve been aware of them for a week and change. Give it time.”

“Yeah? Well, these people gave it time. Months of time to make a conscious decision that this was the future,” Drenar says darkly before gesturing to the furnished bunker. “What can justify this kind of action?”

“That the Conclave discriminates against everyone but humans. Some say we were better off when the dragons were running things.”

“And is it true?”

“I’m not sure my opinion matters, considering I work for SAF and am a dragon, myself. Well, half.”

“You’re also more than the sum of your parts, and a person I trust, Nick. I want your opinion.” Joey notes Nick’s hesitance. In the past, he talked to Amaranth in the evenings during one of their many field forays she’d been on as a research apprentice. It’s telling that his words are…even more filled with doubt than before.

“I’ve…noticed a few things that make me uneasy.”

“Even you?”

“Even me, Drenar. And I didn’t used to feel that way. Things are changing, and not for the better.”

“So people jump ship and offer their talents to the Talons, without getting their hands bloody,” Angela concludes just out of frame. Nick nods quietly. “Talons get researchers and people committed to the cause. They in turn keep it clandestine, to avoid blowback.”

“Maybe for them, this is their job. Researchers who were fascinated with the idea of bringing back two million dragons, and undoing a terrible mistake and a tragedy for almost an entire race,” Joey offers softly. “The end goal is noble, but the means and methods…that, I could never get behind. It violates every ethical norm I’d hold.”

“They’ll use them, Joey. They’ll be cannon fodder. Scared kids, with no clue why this is happening to them. Valosterla will say ‘trust me’ and they’ll believe her. Her, or Crosomer.” Drenar’s iron-clad words ring with determination. “Kyle, does that golem have any alternate vision functions? Pan around, look for anything unusual or hidden. That safe upstairs was my clue there’s more to hide.”

“Mana sight and thermal. I packed a lot of stuff into these prototypes,” he answers before switching between the visual spectrums. The mana sight is always something to get used to, and it paints the world as a dark gray mass, except where mana crystals or crystal filaments are present in bright whirls of blue, red and purple lights. The energy signature of magical organisms is also present, along with magitech systems and circuitry.

Joey motions for control, and Kyle obliges her. She pans around while he drives forward, and she looks at each of them in turn. Nick has that developed crystal lattice through his body, glowing bright–typical, for his age as a half-dragon. Drenar’s outline is bright–intensely bright, even though the lattice isn’t as developed, and Julia’s almost overwhelms the vision.

“Joey, are these kids…normal?” Kyle whispers.

“Based on this visual…Drenar and Julia have extremely developed mana circulatory cores within them. Julia just Awakened, which is incredible.” She pans right and the visual overloads, and she winces from the bright screen. “Kyle, turn the sensitivity down, something overloaded it.”

“Hang on. Troubleshooting guys, one second,” he announces over the radio before fiddling with the controls and turning down the collector sensitivity. Joey stares at what had overwhelmed them before.

“Joey? What is that?”

“A crystalline shard. It’s…right in her heart.” She keeps the radio off deliberately when she looks at Angela’s outline–radiating brightly. That false image shows a mana crystal lodged somewhere in Angela’s heart muscle, visible to them because it’s so big. “This is…unusual. This doesn’t happen for decades–even centuries in dragons. Do we–”

“No. Let’s not ask questions yet. Just note it.” Kyle looks disturbed by this. “All three of them are giving me weird vibes. Could this be part of the devices’ effect?”

“We need data on them when we aren’t in crisis mode. None of this is normal or in alignment with a normal Awakening.” She jots it down while they continue grabbing everything of intelligence value, and Drenar gives one last look around the room before they leave, and Angela puts a hand on his shoulder.

Stolen novel; please report.

“You alright?”

“No. I can’t fathom how someone could do this. Work in a clandestine lab, go home, say hi to the kids after work, tuck them into bed at night, then rinse and repeat. Every single day, while they commit unethical experimentation on other kids as a regular nine-to-five job, Angie. Let’s keep going.”

For some reason that she doesn’t fully understand, she feels that gnawing anger in her own heart, too. He’s absolutely right. This is unbounded arcanist research at its worst.

The team continues down the hall, and Kyle switches between the visual setups and sticks to normal vision mode. They come up to another bunker door with a heavy hatch. Julia holds a bolt pistol at the ready while Nick eases the door open with a well-oiled hinge, and they peer inside. Kyle runs the golem past their feet, and Julia nods. Joey examines the room while Kyle drives, and she's filled with wonder and a trickle of dread.

The research room is massive. An arched ceiling that a dragon could stand in comfortably looms above. The space below is concrete slab walls with small decor to make it more lived-in, and there are rows of computers, processors, sample trays, laboratory cabinets, and more. Microscopes and arcanist gear adorn one desk, and there are hand-written notes when Kyle launches the golem up onto the table with an unsteady use of a kinetic thruster. Everyone disperses and gets to work.

Joey is still taking in the sights, while Kyle lets out a low whistle, “This is an arcanist dream lab.”

She has a much different opinion than her lab partner.

"It's a place they used for experiments on kids, Kyle. A place where Valosterla or King gave orders to kill people getting too close to the truth about what they were up to. There is nothing dreamlike about this place," she rebukes quietly. “No matter what world-changing information they gleaned from it.”

"Point the finger at the people. But the tools can't be held responsible for what the hands that wield them do." She doesn't acknowledge his candid point and continues to take in the sight, and focuses on Drenar. He looks grim. But not terrified like he should be by this point. She notes the equipment is all extremely high-end. Expensive, and very hard to acquire.

"Drenar, this lab has top-of-the-line stuff that even I don't have here in Asqualia. This took years to acquire, and lots of planning. Lots of money. You shouldn't be here, any of you guys," she said in a low tone.

Drenar lets out a low grunt. "SAF already dropped the ball–Nick and Levine notwithstanding. Jonaleth–that giant dragon we just threw a beating–threatened to kill me and my foster parents when my brother wouldn't play ball with them. I'm exactly where I want to be Joey, throwing a wrench in their plans."

He circles around checking for presumably traps or sensors, and motions Nick and Julia to the sides of the room to check around. He points occasionally to the others, noting the whiteboards of experimental data and equations. There are also some mundane notes on lunch and dinner requests. “Nick, Julia, Angela, bag and tag every hard drive. Put them in those shielded bags. That son of a bitch isn’t going to wipe the data on us twice. We need to hurry, reinforcements could be here at any minute once they figure Jonaleth isn’t responding.”

"Drenar, don't take it the wrong way, but you're not a damn superhero," Joey fumes. She’s annoyed by that slight smirk of his, even as dire as this situation might be.

"I’m not. But…some family members were. Alexander Rashalda led the Luminaires a long time ago, something that got under Crosomer’s scales, big time."

"Are you talking about…Wait, Alexander Rashalda?" Kyle asks. Drenar nods slowly. "Wow, that's crazy. I thought he died right before the end of the war! He and the Valkyries wiped the floor with them, it just took a while!"

"Yeah. Crosomer hasn’t let that go. They used to be friends for a long time. Then they ended up on opposite ends of the war when he went rogue and decided the Conclave had to burn," Drenar speaks up suddenly, voice etched in tension. The board he’s looking at shows him, and his friends. With detailed notes. Along with a note to incinerate everything if Valosterla swings by.

That seems to be an oddly specific instruction.

"If you don't mind me asking, why are you so popular Drenar?" Joey asks warily. This is a massive obsession for one kid, even as impressive as his talents and abilities were when compared to the average mage, even the average dragon!

"You get the answer to that, there's a prize pool waiting for you. My theory is that our resident snake face feels clinging remorse over Alex's death, so he has to make it up to me somehow. While I get the why, it doesn't make me any less upset about his methods. And I'm not the only one he's obsessed with."

Drenar's composure slips for just a minute. Gone is that determined expression, but of someone still so young, and just…hollowed by something. "Joey, none of us had any warning on this. People kept our heritage from us. Our own parents. Bad enough knowing mom and dad just…left us, and gave us no heads up. No contingency. Nothing."

"Left?" She asks softly. Drenar nods after a second. “I heard you saying something to Jonaleth before, but–”

"Maybe this isn't the kind of conversation we should have over the phone," he replies quietly after a second. Change of subjects Joey, don't lose him! She thinks for a second.

"Right, I get it. Maybe later. So, about that fight earlier…you've done this before?" He glances at the golem and nods.

"Unfortunately. Before this, I had a decidedly thorough training in combat. Spoilers, Julia is dangerous," he adds with a soft laugh. “Then again, I guess I am too. Angela, Julia, and myself did some hefty damage to their soldiers collectively, and Crosomer.”

"So…you guys are…"

"Close friends," he answers. He doesn’t elaborate.

"Drenar, quit chatting up the mad scientists!" Julia scolds in the background. "Unless it's about me. Hey, I don't suppose this golem does FaceTime, does it?" The dark-haired girl comes into focus–she actually is quite pretty, with some expressions of oceanic or possibly Japanese facial features, but her skin is pale white. And her eyes are bright azure. Scandinavian, too? Maybe Nordic? Joey has a decent recognition for faces–has she seen her before somewhere, before the yearbook discovery?

“Um…it does have a function to set up a video feed–” Kyle starts to say.

“You know what Kyle, hell with it. I think they need faces to match with a voice.” She makes her decision without hesitation.

“Let’s make our debut to the teenage dragons with attitude.”