The wolf-like Archive had once had to navigate a nest like this, in what started as a rescue mission, but ended as a slaughter (both on his side and the enemies). It had been by chance that the queen 'dragon' Linaeas and his team had fought chose to flee to heal her own wounds before she killed them all, chance that Tax' had managed to reach his mind before the newly-hatched drone was killed--and while Linaeas seemed to have led a blessed life there-after (he managed to survive numerous wounds in the first place, including his forever acid-damaged eyes; managed to claw his way back to others... hell, even managed to keep a bond who, in any other case, would probably have turned out a killing machine) he was worried now by his dragon's behavior.

Tax', in the presence of Lacass and her eggs, seemed much less 'reserved'. He no longer made any attempt to conceal his 'natural' side... he spoke little, and when he did, it was cryptically. He worked night and day to ensure that his 'hive' was secure, adding layer upon layer of the black, resinous substance which now coated the entire hatching bay thoroughly. And all the time that Linaeas had been in his presence, Tax' had been cold towards him, at best. At one point, when Linaeas had made to inspect Lacass' eggs, Tax' had lunged at him, and would have crushed him had the Archivist not so strongly sent his own shock back at him.

So in short, Linaeas was worried about what would come of all of this. Would Tax' go 'back to normal' after this clutch hatched, or remain in a semi-feral state? The Archivist sincerely hoped it was the former.

At least he knew what his part in all of this was... he had brought his little record-chip, onto which, when the time came, he would imprint the names of the creatures that hatched. He didn't want to call them dragons... of all the small pile of 'eggs' that Lacass had laid, only two had not parted to reveal the spidery first-stage forms of the offspring. Gods and demons only knew what was to come there-after. Linaeas glanced at the small group of bodies plastered against the wall, then turned his red-glowing gaze away with disgust. At least the sacrificial creatures weren't sentient, like he's suspected Tax' and Lacass might have wanted.

He turned in time catch the movement of the tall, pale skinned Minister of Security as the human came up to stand beside him. "Gavin," Linaeas murmured a greeting.

The human nodded by way of his own greeting. "So this is what the bay was sealed up for, is it?" he asked.

Linaeas dipped his head, and a low rumble slipped out of his throat unbidden. He dragged a claw over the ribbed ground before turning his gaze upwards to the Minister. "I would have done something about this sooner, if I had been able to."

Gavin looked about the transformed bay with a faint expression somewhere between amazement and confusion, subdued but still present. His small white firelizard, Talek, chirred unhappily and cowered upon his master's shoulder. The flit, for one, did not like the surroundings at all.

The dark-haired man reached out and ran a cybornetic hand along one of the many resin arches that lined what had once been a wall. He examined his fingertips briefly, as if expecting something would have come off on him, then glanced back to the lupine Archivist. "Done something?" he repeated, looking across the bay where Lacass and her consort lurked in the coils of the strange structure they'd turned the bay into. "Somehow I doubt you'd have been able to do much, regardless. You are not at fault here. This is... not behavior we are familiar with."

Linaeas shook his head. The ruff of fur on his neck stood up a little straighter. "It is... unusual. I had thought that Taxoness was the last of his kind..." His gaze travelled to the steel-black warrioress, and if he could have glared, he would have. "I was wrong, more then I thought. There will be more, shortly." He gestured to the unconscious, half-ensconced bodies that lined a section of the wall. He didn't want to get into the details on them... the images that Tax' had given him were enough to make his stomach turn.

Gavin looked where Linaeas had indicated, and frowned softly at the resin-encased prey-beasts. A few moments passed as he stared at them, clearly not comprehending their true purpose. The Minister's knowledge of Taxoness' breed was minimal, if not completely nonexistent. That, however, was understandable. It was his job to maintain law and order in Star City, not to be well-versed in every breed of dragon that ever set paw in the spaceport--that was Siche's job. So, he assumed the bound bodies were food for their offspring... in the standard, post-hatching meal sense. "Just how soon is shortly?" he queried, looking back at the Archivist.

The lupine creature shook his head. "Very, I believe. The dragoness has called for candidates..." here he paused, unsure of whether to continue or not. "She has particular tastes, it seems. "Strong-willed" candidates..." was the politically correct term. As Tax' had relayed it, Lacass had called for the most despicable creatures that could be found on the station. Linaeas, believing thoroughly that it would be better to have the hatchlings--or burstlings bond and then shipped away then to have them running free, had obliged.

"Hard to imagine such... creatures, wanting bonds," Gavin replied softly, scanning the darkness in attempt to catch sight of the parents. And again, he looked at the resin-bound animals on the wall. The Minister felt some measure of sympathy for the beasts: the sensors in his cyborware eyes reported they were still quite alive, and thus simply waiting to be torn apart whenever the strange eggs hatched. "The hatchlings must be very fierce, to require still-living prey. Will the candidates be in danger?"

"I... don't know." The Archivist honestly didn't. The Queen he'd fought had left none of these others... and Tax' wouldn't say another thing about them to him, other then that they needed candidates. A little ball of dread flared in his stomach, as Linaeas thought that, perhaps, the creatures would just use 'candidates' as a food source. Maybe that was why Lacass had wanted to worst to attend? "I would have said that they aren't all that bad, a few weeks ago." Linaeas tried to chuckle, but it sounded forced.

The Minister's mouth drew into a tight line, and Talek churred unhappily on his shoulder. Absently lifting one hand to rub the little creature between the wings, Gavin looked down at Linaeas again, his expression solemn as it always was when he was weighing assorted factors to determine a mode of action. "I will put some men on standby, to handle the situation if things go wrong," he stated, looking back to the eggs. It was not an offer. He would not have feral, unrestrained beasts going wild in his city. If they proved too dangerous, he would have the offspring eliminated.

Linaeas nodded, unhappy at the whole situation. From somewhere across the darkened cavern, one of the xeno-dragons let out a low, drawn out hiss. Soon the creatures would do their thing.... and then maybe things would go back to being the way they were before.

Taxoness had revealed that the clutch was about to 'hatch' imminently, giving his bond just enough time to call on those who needed to know, or to pass on the information to others. Gavin's men managed to show up before any of the proper candidates; the Minister himself arranged himself near one of the doors. The increased security was welcome to the Archivist, though no doubt it wouldn't be towards those who wished to show.

A dozen or so shifty creatures ambled or slouched or paraded in, in ones and rarely in twos, and made their ways towards the Archivist. Most ignored the guards that had positioned themselves here and there, though one or two disappeared as soon as they caught sight or them. Linaeas had perched himself atop one upswelling of resin, high enough that he could look down on most of them. He glared balefully upon the ones who showed their arrogance, their maliciousness. He was unwilling to show any kind of fear for their menacing facades. "Right then. I'll need your names, and then we can go through with this bloody mess, and you can go on your way. And once all is said and done, if you're ever caught causing trouble on this station, you and your dragon will be ground meat."

One creature scoffed, while another hissed in surprise. "Namesss? I heard nothing of thisss from my informant."

Linaeas twitched one lip up over a row of glistening sharp teeth. "In case you have not heard, this is the way things work around here. If you don't like it, I'm afraid you'll have to leave... escorted." The wolfen creature tossed his metal-masked head towards the door, where two burly looking guards waited. The creature who protested shut both of his mouths and narrowed his eyes. Linaeas nodded. Good.

Before he was through with recording the group's names, a sharp squeal-turned gurgle interrupted their attention. Linaeas jerked his head towards the wall of prey, and froze in astonishment as the beast began to feebly struggle. Apparently it had come awake again, but it was bound thoroughly in the hardened, dark material--even if it was at full strength, which it obviously was not, i would not have been able to escape. What was astonishing, however, was not that the beast was struggling, but rather that there was something moving about within it. Linaeas bared his teeth fully, and barked at the last couple of candidates to speak.

It wasn't a moment after he had all that he needed that the struggling beast--and now those nearby it--began to make horrible retching noises, their lean bodies spasming with a violence not entirely their own. A few of the candidates drew nearer, fascinated in their own perverted ways.

Linaeas focused himself, for he could not simply look away. However, something caught his attention... there was a commotion at the door. As much as he wanted to, he didn't look over to see what was causing it until the source of the commotion came barrelling over the hardened sands. As the first of the burstlings pounded its way out of confinement, Linaeas caught sight of the creature behind the distraction: a six-limbed blur, the brownish black monster was loping on two massive arms, while the other four pumped in unison to keep him balanced and moving. Guards were close on his heels--it looked as if it were a race, only Linaeas knew it was darker then that.

Obviously the intruder was going to reach the burstlings before the guards would catch him... and by the rules of the city, no one was allowed to harm a newly bonded dragoner. It was just the law--

"STOP HIM!" A voice exploded across the bay (Gavin's, Linaeas realized with some amount of surprise), leaving the two adult xeno's hissing and swaying their heads, and the dozen or so candidates caught between the quickly approaching escapee, and the equally quickly approaching hatchlings.

Not so one candidate: a human woman, with short light hair, a masculine build. The voice rang out, she stepped forward, blocking the creature's path. The thing didn't seem to be slowing, his squinty eyes were focused on the far wall, and the prizes thereon. The woman-candidate braced herself and, without a second thought, two brilliant blazes of fire lit along her back. Magic? Linaeas tore his gaze off of her as the first of the new creatures managed to rupture its confining chest cavity. It was too bloody to have any determinable colouration, and almost as soon as it had appeared, its head retreated again for another butt.

The creature and the candidate collided, and while the first was not dissuaded by the brilliant, aggressive display of heat and light, the two adult 'dragons were plainly upset. Lacass snarled at the female, Taxoness shrieked and extended his tongue-bound second jaw. Both monster and woman were oblivious--the candidate tumbled backwards, despite her brace, and her collider went crashing to the ground with her. The display of firey magic went out without a puff of smoke, though the woman certainly wasn't out for the count. The escapee cursed liquidly, bringing two of his four arms up to begin beating her, but before he could lay another blow, one guard had thrown himself on him, and another was close behind. Gavin himself was not a step before the second, his face a solemn mask. Linaeas cursed himself. He knew this was all a bad idea, things were getting messy and the first hatchling hadn't yet emerged.

Or rather, it had, and it was slithering directly towards the group of candidates. It was tiny, perhaps two feet long, and not more then a few inches in diameter; bloody and silent, it moved surprisingly fast for its appearance. The female candidate, Keren? Yes, Keren, was picking herself, though now the Minister of Security was offering her a hand. Just as the tall, blonde woman got to her feet, both of them gave a startled look.

'Shit.' Linaeas knew that look... he'd seen it a hundred times before. But there was only one creature, and both humans turned towards its sudden shriek of hunger. Linaeas gritted his teeth, jotted down the bonding mentally, and hoped that nothing else would go wrong.

Most of the candidates, having witnessed the scuffle, and unwilling to get themselves involved, shifted to the sidelines. There were only a couple who remained close enough for any likelihood of bonding to occur.

The rest of the 'bursters were pounding furiously at their host's chests, the prey-beasts were either squealing, gurgling, or dead already. Linaeas averted his gaze, for now, looked towards his own bond... the red-black drone, as well as the steel-black mother, were moving about, distracted by something other then the creatures on the wall.

Keren had picked up the little creature, whose tail slashed back and forth, whipping grime everywhere (including on Gavin's pressed suit). The woman shook her head at a word from the Minister, who was himself holding a cyborware hand to his forehead. His little white flit, who had ridden in on his shoulder, was no where to be found. Gavin gestured for the pair to head towards the Archivist, who had had several containers of post-hatching food available. Keren nodded sharply and, holding the creature at arms distance away from her (and nearly dropping it once), moved away from the wall.

Just then a number--rather, the other three--bursters that had been working just as fiercely to escape their hosts, splashed over the ground, accompanied by the gore of their victims. They writhed where they lay, and a few of the candidates made as if to approach them (apparently they weren't so tough after witnessing the first 'hatching'), but they were already moving... following the trail of blood that their forerunner had left them.

The escapee monster was being brought under control, and the Minister looked just about ready to head out with him, when, by chance, he looked down--and three sightless faces latched their collective mind to his.

Linaeas jumped to his feet. It wasn't supposed to work like this! The candidates, most of them, anyways, were not supposed to go unbonded, while those who weren't intended to walked away with such... gods and demons! Linaeas jumped down to help the Minister, who looked more confused and disoriented now, then anything. The guards, who were attempting to restrain the escapee, were distracted long enough for the monster to get one set of arms free.

The mottled convict promptly brought his fists down on the guard who still held him captive, knocking the big man out cold with two powerful blows. Before the other could turn, the creature had swung around and clubbed him with surprising strength, and the second guard went sliding to a stop over one patch of slippery resin.

Linaeas skidded to a halt before the Minister, who was shaking his head at the little monstrosities that creeled up at him. The Archivist gnashed his teeth. "Get it together, Gavin, don't fight it." The worst thing any newly bonded human could do was to fight the link... even if in this case dealing with it should have been second on the list of priorities.

The mottled re-escapee leaned back on his tail-foot, thrashing his head with still potent rage. "No one gets in the way of Skelemis!" he roared, shaking four fists in one giant tantrum.

"This isn't good..." Linaeas continued to grit his teeth, and finally, as the Minister collected his things the wolfen Archivist brought himself between the human and the felon. He didn't have to worry about an attack.

One of the candidates, the loftiest of them all, strode towards the renewed scuffle, and, with relative easy, gripped Skelemis around the base of the neck. The monster tried to roar again, and brought his quartet of arms upwards, gripping and tearing at the clothing of this new threat.

The male, apparently human, though his skin was as dark as night, his eyes unnaturally demonic, let a low rumble slip through his lips. He said nothing, though the cuts that the felon was inflicting with more and more desperation obviously stung him. Finally the human-creature threw the rather short felon to the floor. Linaeas watched all of this in a state of inaction.

But the human-candidate was moving away from Skelemis, towards the two adult xenodragons. Taxoness and Lacass were trained on him, aware of his presence. Linaeas followed the candidate up the ridge or resin that separated the dragons from him--and as he came to the lip, realized that the two eggs which had never hatched, had.

The tall, black human strode over the lip of hardened material, stopped a short distance away from two small, though definitely more well-formed hatchlings. These ones had wings, and well-developed legs. They appeared, also, to be more intelligent. One, a golden-black creature, slunk around the base of her fleshy shell, 'eyeing' the candidate with no little disdain. The second, this one brightly copper against black, was a little more bold. He snarled at the intruder, and when the candidate-human made know appearance of fear, took a step closer. For all that he was perhaps two feet tall, the hatchling exhibited the same dark intentions as his parents.

Linaeas watched raptly as the copper-black and the candidate stared at once another for some time, and then as the hatchling slunk towards the humanoid. Suddenly, with lightning speed, the xenodragonet lunged, aiming to clamp down on one of the intruder's legs.

The candidate side-stepped, caught one still-wet wing with his hand and tugged it sharply, causing the hatchling to fall to the ground awkwardly as his legs slipped out beneath him. There was another pause, and then the copper-black followed his new bond over the lip of the nest and towards food. His spiked tail lashed angrily the entire way.

That left the gold-black, who had ventured out of hiding to watch the bonding-act. Linaeas wondered who she (how he knew it was female was beyond him) would react.

He didn't have long to wait. Another figure... Skelemis in fact, had limped up the side of the mound. The escapee just wouldn't stay down! Linaeas snarled at him, but again was beaten to any act of brutality. The gold-black sprung up the mound and, without any warning, clamped her claws over the felon's elongated head. Skelemis screamed, causing the gold-black to shriek maliciously back.

The wolfen Archivist backed up a step at this brutal, unprovoked act, horrified as, just as suddenly as the hatchling had clamped on to the convict, she began punching holes in the top of his skull. From below, Lacass gave a rumble of approval. Linaeas was going to be sick to his stomach; gore flew as the hatchling--the hatchling no less, made short work of the creature which had down at least two guards, and who knew what else to make his way up here.

And then she was gone. One moment she was tearing chunks out of the felon, the next she had slipped over the side, towards the rest of the candidates. 'I can't let her reach them...' Linaeas thought, urgency propelling him back the way he'd come. 'I can't let another attack like this occur'...

The gold-black was headed towards the group of individuals (most of the candidates had either fled by now, or had left in disappointment), moving like liquid shadow-light. Linaeas barked a warning, but the hatchling was too far ahead. She bounded towards the already bonded individuals--three in total, drawn perhaps by the others of her kind. The Archivist hissed at the thought of the distracted Minister being attacked, or the woman who had helped him stop (for the first time), the now discarded carcass.

But no, the hatchling was instead descending on what food there was to be had, apparently unaware of her surroundings otherwise.

Linaeas breathed a sigh of relief, until Keren blocked the gold-black's attempt on the smaller, less well self-defensible 'burster's food supply. The hatchling shrieked and chomped down on the humans arm instead, and while Keren cursed, she didn't try to shake the hatchling off. The gold-black was cut short on her attack as the burly woman whacked her in the side of the head with her other fist... she fell off, shook her sightless head, and turned back to growl at the human. There was a moment of complete stillness, Keren holding her injured arm, the hatchling posed to strike again, and then, as if it had never happened, the gold-black went back to her own bowl of meat.

Linaeas cocked his head, confused. Was that it?

That is the last of them. Taxoness murmured in the back of his mind, his voice coloured with smugness. The Archivist lowered his head. So the hatching ceremony was over... thank the gods. Now all that was left was to clean up this mess...

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