(Untitled)

[twoeyesonthesky]

He's mad. He's got to be. Van Zant's survived long enough to get across the ocean, yeah, Quinn's got to give him that, but that doesn't change the fact that the man is absolutely bloody insane-

The old military men had fought the dragons from fighter planes, but their weapons hadn't been able to match the beasts' maneuverability. Van Zant's men

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[twoeyesonthesky]

He'll head down in a moment, Quinn tells himself. He's just going to listen a little further as the Americans announce it- beacon one's up, that's fine, the chopper's climbing. They've got the dragon coming up hard and fast, and there's the second beacon, that's good too. Alex is calling down to Van Zant and the rest of the men on the ground that she's hit the cloud bank, she's going to stay hidden as long as she can until she's either got visual or the third beacon is up-

-where is that thing, anyway?

"Collins?" crackles Van Zant's voice. "Collins! Report!... shit. Alex, we lost Collins! There's not gonna be a third beacon!"

"That's not good, Van Zant, you can't tell me that..."

"That was our last cycle. I can't get a man out to Collins' last location before the bitch catches up with you. You're gonna have to surface and do this on visuals alone."

"I can't do this without the beacons! You're asking me to throw our men's lives away on a guess!"

Quinn puts Ajay's headset down and backs away from the desk. A moment later there are footsteps in the deserted castle corridors again, but they don't go the rest of the way down the stairs when he hits the ground floor. They go back, and out. He's heading for the stable.

[one_eyetothesky]

"If you all settle down, we'll tell you the next part of the story," Creedy promises to the assembled children, trying to distract them a bit from what is no doubt coming. A reality of life, of course, a reality of their lives... but that didn't mean he wasn't going to do everything he could to lessen it.

A few bounces and squeaks lets him know he's got an audience, and a few smiles from various other residents of the castle let him know he's got their thanks. He looks around, pulling one of the smaller boys (Adam, as someone'd gotten a bit funny with the naming) into his arms.

"Or do you want a new story?"

There's a variety of calls for different things, all thoroughly distracted.

"All right, the next piece of the old," he agrees, looking around for his partner in crime. He had a feeling Quinn'd want to check on things with Ajay's radio, but he should have been back by now.

Shit.

Well.

"So, as the bag opened, he..."

[twoeyesonthesky]

It's Ross's bridle Quinn grabs, not Rosalind's. They bred the mare in the spring; she'll be dropping the foal next year. If he's lucky enough to survive this it won't matter, but if he doesn't make it back, there's at least the chance of her throwing a colt. Besides, Ross was always faster. Quinn digs his heels into the horse's flanks and leans over his neck, urging him onward towards the jagged landscape where the American motorcyclist's last radio transmission ended.

The dragon's overhead somewhere. That's a thought he's used to. What he's not used to any more is the thrumming sound of an engine in the skies as he frantically searches the landscape. Even so high and far off it nearly drowns out the radio crackle- "Collins! Collins, can you hear me? Shit! Collins! Tell me you just fell off, you son of a bitch!"

He sits back in the saddle and Ross neighs, snorting, pawing at the air for a moment. Then the horse calms enough for Quinn to jump down from the saddle and scramble down the loose spree that sent the cycle's wheels astray. "He's dead, mate," he says roughly as he snatches up the radio handset. "What am I looking for?"

".... who the hell is this?"

"Quinn. It's me. It's Quinn. What'm I looking for, Van Zant?"

"Jesus Christ. All right, Quinn, the beacon's about as tall as a man, mounted on a spike. He'd've had it in his right hand. I need you to find it and get that thing up on the highest point you can manage, as fast as you can..."

[one_eyetothesky]

I'm going to kill that man if he's alive. Kill him and mount his head on a pike.

Creedy smiles and bounces Adam along with the tale. He's doing his best to be engaging... if only so that no one else notices that Quinn isn't there either.

[twoeyesonthesky]

And the kids, and their parents, appreciate it. Almost as much as... well, no, there's no room for appreciation in anyone outside right now. It's all going far too quickly. The beacon's up and beeping, and somewhere up above Quinn spots the cloud briefly, horribly lighting up from within-

"NOW!" shouts Van Zant's voice on the radio. It takes Quinn a moment to realise it's not directed at him. The chopper bursts out of the cloud unharmed, followed moments later by an awful reptilian form so familiar that it's everything Quinn can do to keep Ross from bolting for his life.

There are specks in the sky now, three of them, plummeting from the chopper in the dragon's direction. Three men, with no chutes that Quinn can see. Only- from the sound of it- their net-guns and a desperate sort of hope. One fires, and another.

Over the radio there's an anguished scream as one of the men finds out the hard way that his shot wasn't good enough to tangle the dragon properly.

[one_eyetothesky]

"Where's--"

Creedy grins at him wide enough to have him pause.

"The cat? Why, he disappeared! And just before their mother came back from the fields," he says.

String him up by the bollocks he doesn't know what it'd do to everyone if something happened to him...

[twoeyesonthesky]

The Americans are down to one net-man now, and that one managed to tangle the dragon's left wing just enough that the monster's dropping out of the sky at a terrifying speed. "THIS WAY, Quinn!" comes Van Zant's crackling voice. "You and that horse of yours're all we've got left- you bring that bitch to me, you hear me? The dragon's after you, so you lead it to me!"

Well, isn't that just what a man in the field wants to hear? Ross's hooves are all but striking sparks from the rock as the horse bolts, his rider's sudden spike of shiny new terror communicating itself through every point of possible contact.

There's a hot, stinking wind blowing from behind. It's not going to be fast enough, not even with the Americans shouting at him over the radio, not even with the helicopter buzzing overhead, it wasn't fast enough then in the lift out of the tunnels under London and it's not going to be fast enough now...

Where the horse gets the extra burst of speed from Quinn doesn't know. All he knows for sure is that there are Americans waving him on from all sides now, even Van Zant, who's crouched behind the biggest harpoon gun Quinn's ever seen. He hauls roughly on Ross's reins, forcibly turning the horse away from his terrified dead run and back towards the castle. Then it's not loose scree under Ross's hooves any more but the courtyard's flagstone paving, and the horse finally comes to a halt, sides heaving and eyes wheeling. Quinn peels himself loose from the saddle, staggering away from the far more sensible animal. He has to see-

There's a PWANG! as Van Zant fires the harpoon gun. And there's an unholy ROAR to match it, as the dragon spills its flame at the wretched squirming pink things in its path.

Some time later there's a rapping at the shelter door.

[one_eyetothesky]

Creedy's up, putting Adam in his sister's arms as he runs to the door, grinning like a loon.

That doesn't mean he isn't going to kill him.

"Quinn!"

[twoeyesonthesky]

Quinn's got to rub at the side of his nose with one hand before he can answer. "There's," he begins, and then pauses. "There's, uh. There's a dead dragon outside."

And as the murmurs and shocked exclamations start to go up from the gathered castlefolk he adds in an undertone, "Along with a good several dead Americans."

[one_eyetothesky]

Creedy's not sure how he feels about any of it, but he does know one thing.

He turns.

"Give us a minute to get things clear before we head out. Never too long in a hidey hole."

He gets a few nods before he turns back to Quinn, a little worried.

"How many?"

Enough that they can get the bloody castle back from them or just enough to make them crazier?

[twoeyesonthesky]

"Their beacon man and two of the bolas men," Quinn answers. "And sixteen incapacitated burn cases. Van Zant's one of 'em. I don't know that he's gonna last tnrough the night."

[one_eyetothesky]

His thoughts are a little uncharitable, so he keeps them to himself.

"All right. Let's get all the able-stomached out to help them and get things back to normal."

He breathes in.

"And then later, you tell me where in hell you were and what you thought you were doing?"

[twoeyesonthesky]

"Later," Quinn agrees, and turns to start rustling up people to go and help.