Third, Keren Tenat, the rising xenodragoness' bond, stood on one of the launching ledges to watch, and she was not intending to budge unless it was to separate the combatants in a fight. Any men who came, drawn by their dragons' interests, would be sorely disappointed. Or relieved, depending on how you looked at it, and depending on what kind of men they were. Tenat hadn't bothered to check.

::What are all these creatures doing here?::

Nekeress, the rising xenodragon herself, stepped up to the launching pad with her bond, bristling down at the seven bursters wall-crawling their way back up the side of the deck, on their way out.

"Relax, they're just leaving," Tenat reassured her with a roll of her eyes. "You know the plan: no stragglers who aren't supposed to be there for this. They were just cleaning the place out."

::They should have been done with that by now,:: the irritable xenodragon snapped. Tenat didn't bother to answer, just gave her bond a punch in the shoulder and turned to the Minister of Security-- and, oddly enough, housemate-- the "hive-master" of those seven.

"Everything ready?" she asked simply.

"Ready enough for me to leave," Gavin Vance agreed, looking a little irritated, himself. "You're sure this won't turn into another mess like last time?"

"As sure as possible," Tenat shrugged. "Go on, sir, we'll be back home soon enough. I can't imagine Nekeress will want to draw this out."

::Damn right,:: Nekeress grumbled. ::And take your bursters with you!::

"We're going, we're going," the Minister replied, turning and leading his miniature hive off. Igess looked over its shoulder at Tenat, but she shooed the creature off with the silent promise that she'd follow later. It wasn't happy about leaving her behind, but it went.

::Finally!:: Nekeress grunted, and leapt from the ledge.

Tenat went to the edge to look down, seeing almost the entire deck from her vantage point: that's why she'd picked this particular ledge. Nekress ignored her suitors, making a dive for the corralled inyu in a back corner-- not because she was hungry, really, but because it was an excuse to make a bloody mess. Since all anyone else wanted was to keep there from being bloody messes with sentient creatures, Tenat didn't complain.

All five of the chasers-- all pure-blooded xenodragons, as Nekeress had specified when she signed up-- were there, waiting with varying degrees of impatience. One was black on black, like a shadow against the metallic deck, quietly clinging to a wall and watching; another was as vividly gold on black as Nekeress, herself, and had his teeth bared in that signature xenodragon grin that had nothing of amicability in it. There were a pair who had arrived together, blue on black-- and he looked arrogant-- and orange on black-- who looked nothing if not a little goofy. And then there was one which was pure white. Not white on black, not even white on tan, but pure white.

::Corogess, Feuss, Ashonoss, and Zegress. And Navidass-- did you say white?::

Well, no, I didn't actually say white. But yes, he is white.

Nekeress abandoned the carcass she'd been worrying with an enraged shriek. ::I will not have a rankless in my flight!:: she roared, narrowing in instantly on the offending white xenodragon.

"Nekeress, hold it!" Tenat bellowed from her ledge, but the dragoness was paying her no attention. Apparently there was something about white xenodragons that she didn't like, but Tenat hadn't the faintest idea what. She did know that she couldn't get to her bond in time to stop something violent happening to one of the "innocent" chasers.

Thankfully, despite being caught completely flat-footed, the white xenodragon-- Navidass-- managed to avoid being shredded-- but largely because the orange-on-black-- Zegress?-- had gotten in the way, making her veer off with a startled little screech. ::Hey, wait, this is supposed to be a happy occasion, isn't it?:: Tenat heard.

::I don't need protection from anyone!:: Navidass hissed, snapping at Zegress, though without coming close to actually biting him.

::Just keeping the peace!:: Zegress caroled before darting out from between the two, apparently pleased that he'd diffused the situation, at least temporarily. ::We gonna fly, or not?::

Nekeress made a dive and snap at him, pulling away before he could snatch at her foot or tail. ::He may chase-- but he will not win!:: she hissed, and with that, the flight began.

"Hey, did we miss anything?"

"Huh?" Tenat looked up with a blink from where she'd been following her dragon's twists and turns to avoid suitors. A pair of human men had found their way down the flight deck corridor, looking between her and the xenodragons below.

"The flight," the shorter man clarified, "Anything happen yet?"

"The orange one kept the white one from getting shredded," Tenat answered. "That's about it."

The fellow grinned, shaking his head. "That's Zegress, all right.... I'm Drake, that's Spectre, Zegress and Ashonoss are ours. As much as a xenodragon can belong to anyone."

"And you are?" the second and taller man, Spectre-- the name fit-- asked politely.

"Keren Tenat." They both stared, and Tenat smirked. "Yes, yes, I look like a man. --Don't look at me like that, I have more important things to do than sleep with reluctant men while my xeno might be about to maul her chasers at any moment."

"Uh, makes sense," Drake said with a blink.

"Buy you a round afterwards, if you like," Tenat replied, to make it up to them. "I'm not much for men, but I do love a good drink."

"Sure, sure," Drake nodded, still looking a little flummoxed. Spectre just looked relieved.

That was when Nekeress decided to make another attempt at attacking Navidass-- and this time succeeding, leaving a few rakes of acidic blood along the white xeno's back. Tenat winced, jerking her attention back where it belonged-- she could only imagine what would happen if there was enough blood shed to start dripping down and eat through the flight deck hull. "If you'll excuse me," she apologize, "I've got to pay attention to those monsters down there before somebody ends up dead or crippled."

The two moved off to another ledge to watch, thankfully, leaving Tenat to focus on Nekeress. This is a flight, stupid, not a massacre! Leave the blood and gore out of it!

Nekeress didn't answer, largely because she was too busy fending off the blue-on-black, Ashonoss, who had tried to take advantage of the distraction to catch her. ::Get off! Get off before I shred you!:: she shrieked, tearing at the "attacker" with teeth and claws. Ashonoss only barely managed to escape without losing a limb.

"One down, four to go," Tenat sighed to herself.

The rest started dropping quickly, after that. Gold-black Feuss ended up with a rent through his wing membranes, and grounded. True black Corogess was the next to fall, though he, at least, left a mark on Nekeress for his troubles, and Tenat had no idea how she was going to try to patch that up.

That left the "hated" white Navidass, who was somehow persevering despite the antagonism, and the oddly jovial Zegress, and Nekeress was starting to get tired of the whole thing. When Navidass made a daring snatch and got another set of claw marks across his chest to match those across his back, and Zegress took his chance to swoop up and tangle with her limbs and tail while Navidass made his escape, she didn't do more than growl and grapple with him a moment before giving up the fight.

::I want nothing from you but children!:: was all she had to say on the subject. If Zegress replied, Tenat didn't hear it.

It was over. Tenat slumped back against the hatch wall with a relieved sigh, rather pointedly blocking out her dragon's current thoughts. "I hope she never wants to do this again," she groaned. None of the acidic blood that had been shed-- and there hadn't been as much as she'd feared, even-- had eaten through the station's hull. No one had died. No one had even been seriously injured. No one had wanted Tenat's attention.... All in all, it could have been much worse.

::What-- who are-- get away from me! Let go!::

Tenat sprang back up to attention and scrambled to the edge, surprised as much by an enraged scream as the projected words. "Nekeress?"

Nekeress and Zegress had broken apart, and Nekeress was plummeting towards the bottom of the deck, shrieking and cursing and clawing at the source of her fall: a gray and silver xenodragon, wingless and only slightly smaller than she was, who clung to her and dragged her down despite her frantic wing-beats. Zegress made a dive to try and separate them, with no success; the pair hit the ground with a horrible cracking sound that, though Tenat knew it was just carapace hitting metal, still sounded sickeningly like breaking bones.

Nekeress!! she shouted in her mind, her fire-wings shooting out from her back. The dragoness didn't answer, her mind flooded with fury and quite efficiently distracted: the fighting had continued on the floor.

Tenat may not have liked Nekeress much, but she wasn't about to let her get torn to bits by some intruding xeno! She dove off the launching pad, wishing she'd thought to bring some kind of weapon, and raced for the minibattle. Zegress seemed to have the same idea, dive-bombing the silver xeno in an attempt to drive him off. Neither combatant was having any of it, too busy tearing at each other to pay any attention to anything else going on around them.

That is, until a gunshot rang out across the deck. Drake, far above, had pulled out a military-issue postol and fired down at the combatants. It connected where it had, Tenat guessed, been aimed: the silver xeno gave a yip and a growl and bolted, trailing acidic blood from multiple rents from xenodragon claws and teeth, and a single gunshot wound. Nekeress nearly went after him, staggering though she was, until both her bond and Zegress interposed themselves between her and her fleeing adversary.

::I'll kill him-- I'll kill him!:: she raged uselessly, pressed up against Zegress' unyeilding side. ::How dare he! I'll kill him! I'll kill you, useless beast, if you don't let me go!::

"You will not," Tenat snorted, her temporary wings of fire now vanished. "You'll come back to the apartment and get patched up, is what you'll do." She eyed the xenodragon's wounds critically. "Somehow. --Who the hell was that?"

::I don't know,:: Nekeress answered sullenly. ::But I am going to find out.::