Drakis copyright Eric Huston. Skyshadow copyright himself.

Drakis ran for his life. He had narrowly escaped the last blast, he might not be so lucky with the next one. At least his sword, Reaver, was still in good shape.

The drones followed him, splitting into groups of three, charging up for another particle blast. Their power belied their small size. They had to be that small, to move easily in the forest.

<Jessala I swear I am going to KILL you when I find you!>He narrowly dodged several blasts from the trios. He was starting to tire, and he hated being on the run.

He used his willbending powers, and threw several large concussion blasts at the drones, destroying them.

He had to look back to do this or risk missing, so he didn't see the Glaive wyvern he ran into.

And you really run into something when you're using willbending to run at nearly fifty miles an hour.

By the time they regained consciousness, it was almost dusk.

Drakis shook himself awake. He came to total consciousness slowly. He looked around, and noticed that he was in the lair of some draconic or another. His gaze stopped at the form of a Glaive wyvern, apparently the one he had collided with. It was very obvious that this one was a male.

"Ugh... what hit me?"

"Me."

"Wha- who are you?"

"I'm Drakis Kellroth. You might've seen me before. I lair in an area not too far away from Glaive wyvern territory. But, I'm usually in feral form near my lair."

"That still doesn't explain why I blacked out."

"I ran into you while running from seeker drones. By the way, who are you? I'll need you're name if you want a formal apology."

"Skyshadow." He'd have to be running extremely fast to knock him out!

"Well, please accept my most humble apologies, Skyshadow. Now, we'd better get out of here, before the humans come looking."

"We? What do you mean, we?"

"They'll notice that I was here, and since you're a draconic, they'll arrest you too. We stand a much better chance together. You know the area, and I'm a willbender."

Skyshadow processed this. A willbender?! They were virtually unheard of in draconics! No wonder the humans wanted him.

Drakis watched as the Glaive wyvern eyed him over. He had heard a lot of things about Glaive wyverns, and he hoped that this male didn't get too many ideas, or too pushy with those ideas.

"we'd better get going. Are their any caves in the nearby area?"

Skyshadow thought about it. "Yeah, there's a small group of caves to the east."

"We'd better go now then. Can you walk?" Drakis got up and walked over to Skyshadow.

"Yeah, I can walk." Skyshadow got up, and he started off toward the caves, Drakis following closely behind.

Drakis' nerves were on edge, and his electrical sense was going haywire. His magnetic powers were constantly scanning for mecha-armor, and he kept on sniffing the air and looking around.

Unit 2 hovered near Skyshadow's lair, following the heat signatures that marked the prescence of the two draconics. 2 Leader identified the species.

[It's a talon dragon and a glaive wyvern we're tailing, men. The energy fluctuations also indicate that the talon is an electric and a willbender.]

The others in the unit sent acknowledgements, the setting sun glinting off their angular black mecha-armor.

[Unit 2, move out.]

Drakis picked up something. Mecha armor. The same unit that nearly killed him and took him captive the last time. "Skyshadow, stand close to me! Now!"

From the look of worry on his face, Skyshadow complied. The instant he came close, he felt surrounded and supported by an invisible force. Drakis grimaced in pain as his form became wavy and indistinct. If he kept using his will in this way, he'd fry himself.

Regaining control, his form settled back into comfortable normality. The two draconics were floating off the ground slightly. "Skyshadow, if I get killed holding us up like this, go to ground. I might blow up a little bit after dying. It's happened to willbenders before. Forget the caves. We're going to Yggdraga, my

home."

They started to fly through the air, suspended in the sphere of will. They built up speed, and they were able to see the beginnings of the Talon mountains as the sun was just about to set. The forest just sailed by underneath them, rivers cutting blue paths through the sea of green.

To the rear of them, four black dots were rapidly gaining on them. In just a few moments, it was obvious that they were Hunter class mecha armor, with government insignia.

"Crap! Just what we needed!" Drakis put on as much speed as he could, but the four Hunters still gained. They let loose with their pulse cannons, bright blue bursts flying all around them. One of the bursts hit

the sphere, spanging off the edge. "I can't keep this up forever. Be ready to make a break for it at any moment."

Drakis hated running. Time to go on the offensive. He might die doing it, but he'd at least take down this unit. A ball of golden light appeared in his hand, growing to nearly a quarter of his size. He launched it in a golden beam, nearly striking a battle armor. The pulse cannon fire continued, the mecha armors closing.

Drakis dove into the woods, foilage and small trees beong blown out of the way by the sphere. The mecha armors followed, one remaining above the trees showering the path ahead with pulse cannon blasts.

One of the mecha armors pulled out a stun baton in addition to the pulse cannon. skyshadow, who happened to be the closest to it at the moment, warned, "Drakis! are you going to do something about this guy? He's almost on us!"

Through gritted teeth, Drakis grunted, "Working on it!" Flames started to trail behind them, making the

mech back off. Drakis then saved himself any more will use by blasting the mech with the rest of the stored electricity he had, releasing it all in a terrific lightning bolt, blasting straight through the mecha armor. It crashed into the ground, exploding and vaporizing everything nearby.

The other two kept their distance, peppering the sphere with their shots. A concussion blast knocked off a booster of one of the armors, sending it crashing into a tree and exploding, sending the massive plant crashing down.

Drakis, almost taxed to the limit, turned to Skyshadow. "Pull out my sword!"

Skyshadow pulled out the zweihander as best he could, the weapon being extremely light despite its size. He handed it to Drakis as quick as he could. They came almost to a complete stop, the sword slicing the pursuing armor cleanly in two. The will sphere deflected the resulting debris from the explosion.

Drakis was breathing heavily and sweat was just running off him. They stopped for a moment.

That moment's rest was a near fatal mistake. 2 Leader crashed his stun baton into the invisible sphere, the

sickly white-blue energy arcs lancing through the sphere, rendering both Drakis and Skyshadow unconscious.

[2 Leader to base. I got them, but the willbender took out the rest of my unit. I'm bringing them in, over.]

The warden sighed, glad no one could see her. "Are they damaged?"

[Nothing more than a stun baton, ma'am.]

"Good. I don't want them damaged. Bring both of them to me after they awaken. Put them in cell 497A, block 3 with the anthro wolf."

[Wilco, ma'am. 2 Leader, out.]