Welcome to Gaia! ::

Of course, when Raven got the call, she practically shoved Anoki and Myung-Ki out of the door. It was a relief to have an excuse to get them out of her hair for a while. Furthermore, it was a chance to see if her charge had actually learned anything under her. He should, by all rights, be able to handle a minor crisis. Not to mention his dragon. This would be good proof. And if he was injured and had to spend more time out of the house, she wouldn't cry over it.

Which left Anoki wandering over to the parking lot as slowly as he possibly could, kicking pebbles and catching leaves on the way as if that would make the inevitable less... inevitable. Dealing with negotiations sounded tricky, and the whole danger thing was less than reassuring.

Sighing, he looked at Myung-Ki, who was leading the way. If their relationship was supposed to be some sort of saving force, they were all probably doomed.

Surprisingly, Myung-Ki felt quite cooperative that day. He knew that the phone call had been about HIM. And he would do whatever it took to make sure all eyes were on HIM. Oh sure, his human could get attention too- after all, it was one of HIS possessions, and worthy of praise. But it was all about him, so he had to be best behaved and then they'd see how wonderful he was.

Well damn. Both Lian and his little cousin had recieved the phone call. Xiao was up and ready, winding around the air, about Lians head and around his body, while Shilling trailed after with a tired 'toot' through his whiskers.

Lian had thrown on a pair of pants and some shoes but Dagger had also forced a thin white wife beater over his head. It was better to be prepared, she told him, and he grudgingly left it at that. Cleo had been there too, waiting for him. Her outfit was a little... short for superhero work, he thought. Bright yellow, fluffy shirt, pulled back hair some a skirt so jean and so tight that he had trouble distinguishing if it was a skirt or skin.

She was cheerful enough, though, and she was still smiling. Even as they entered, her gold by her side, her fingers stroking along the scales, she was smiling. "This might be fun!" Her voice was cheerful, glancing over to Lian as they padded inside. The panda snorted much like his dragon did when she was in disbelief and his head shook.

"Not if they had to call us." He grumbled. "I think we're screwed." Lian paused, grinning as he sa Chath his hand raising in greeting. "Hey!" He called out, voice higher, "Chath!"

Nibal was worried about his parent. Peri had been gone for a while and the alarm was still going off, the voice announcement triggering every five minutes or so now. Either someone had forgotten to turn it off or else something was wrong.

The boy jumped when Peri's office phone rang. He eyed it for a moment before rushing over to answer it. Maybe P'las was calling him! "P'las?!" The boy answered, hoping it was him on the other line.

After Alan had finished, Nibal hung up the phone and looked over at Kalseru, who trilled questioningly at him. "Alan said we're supposed to be helping..." The boy told her, though it was more thinking aloud than anything else. "But P'las said to stay here... so we're supposed to stay here."

Kalseru got up from where she was lounging in the corner and trotted over to the office door, flicking her tail as she glanced backwards at her boy and snorted.

"But P'las said to stay here!" Nibal said, a bit panicky. He was a good boy. He didn't disobey what P'las said.

Kal snorted again, this time more impatiently. She reached her neck over to tug at Nibal's sleeve.

"You mean... maybe P'las had Alan call?"

Grinning, the green dragon nodded. Sure, if that'll get you to come, she told him in Draconic, which Nibal didn't know, of course.

"Okay... I guess you could be right."

Snorting as if to say "Of course I am", Kalseru pawed at the door handle and Nibal finally opened up and headed through the vacant hallway towards the elevators.

------------------

The elevators opened on the first floor and the boy peered about for the group that was supposed to be meeting here. Then again, maybe he was the first since he was already here? Nibal shrugged and wandered about the lobby for a moment before spotting a small group outside. Ah, there they all were! Apparently he hadn't been the first called. Or even one of the first, it seemed. "C'mon, Kal." Nibal told his dragon and headed outside to see what exactly was going on.

"Hello, this is Alan Rikery, the head of D-corp. There's an emergency here at D-corp. We ask that you and your dragon come down immediatly. We beleive the relationship you and your dragon have will be able to help... To negotiate. You won't be put in harms way, and if you're beleived to be so you will be removed immediatly... But there's no one here that would possibly be able to reason at this point. Thankyou."

Ligeia looked up from the book he was reading as the message came over the answering machine at their place. He hadn't even heard the phone he realized as he closed the book then moved over to et the phone quickly before the one on the other end hung up, he listening closely to what was said to him and he found himself wondering what sort of emergency it was in detail.

He didn't hesitate though after hanging up as he pushed up to his feet, tossing the book onto the couch. If he and Vorel were needed then he would go and meet up with Alan.

"Vorel! Come on!" He called out to the Frost Dragon who was currently loungning, half asleep in front of the air conditioner.

Vorel looked up at him for a moment, yawned then stretched out, "Where we going?" He asked, moving to keep up with Ligeia, catching the urgency that was in the movements of his owl.

"There was a call from D-corp requesting our presence, some emergency." He said, thinking on the last few times their presence was required and started to feel a bit aphrensive. He then shook his head, no he couldn't waste time with idle worry. He started to head towards the door when something grabbed hold of his wrist.

Ter was standing there, glarring at him, "Leaving without us?" He asked.

Ligeia looked at his brother, then passed him to Baroness. She was looking whole, healthy, and happy despite her fight. No doubt she was like Ter and bounced back well enough and/or enjoyed the fight... he blinked as he recalled the message before giving a nod of his head. It was asking for all of those with dragons wasn't it? He wasn't sure if he wanted Ter along, didn't want his brother in a situation that could be dangerous but... he really couldn't leave Ter home as he'd just follow.

"Alright. Lets go." He said to Ter and Baroness, "Just... stay with me ok?"

He turned and headed out the door now with his brother and their dragons following after.

*****

There were already quite a few people here when he arrived. A few even that he knew, "Ahh, Chath and Zyanya are here." He said, turning to his brother only to find that the moment Z's name was mentioned Ter was slithering forward towards her. Ligeia gave a sighing sound as he watched, "So much for staying with me huh?" He said to Vorel.

The Frost gave a dragon version of a laugh before nudging Ligeia forward. Best that they stay with Ter and Baroness since they were who they were, and since Keir was here. Vorel would do what he could to keep the two from fighting anymore since they were here for other reasons.

"Z!" Ter said, slithering over to the mantis girl.

Ligeia gave a smile and waved to Chath when he got close, "Hello."

Earako hadn't exactly wanted to come. She wanted to be useful, but she was still sure that someone else would prove themselves much more useful than she could ever be. Still, it wasn't polite to turn down requests for help, and D-corp was, well, D-corp. She owed them her existance, and Vimber's too.

So she'd put on her favorite dress, one of the one's she'd sewn herself recently. Dark red velvet and black lace, she liked to think it allowed her to better match the dragon at her side.

There were a lot of dragon's in the lot, and Earako immediately placed her hand on Vimber's head in caution.

"You have to be good." She muttered, more begging than warning.

"Why?" The dragon asked, using some of her limited human vocabulary.

"Because, if D-corp sees that you don't listen, they could take you away from me." She had no real proof of this theory, of course. But insecurity was enough for her.

Vimber hissed, moving closer to her partner, and trying not pay any attention to the other dragons. Her tail lashed with contained irritation, but the threat of having her Special taken from her was enough to keep her ordinary aggression contained.

Earako, after some hesitant scanning of the others, headed toward Anoki. He wasn't the only one she recognized, but he was one of the most comforting faces there.

"Hello everyone!" She called out, waving to the group at large. She didn't want to seem as if she was excluding anyone.

Lucía catches the telephone and she listens Alan's call "Hello, this is Alan Rikery, the head of D-corp. There's an emergency here at D-corp. We ask that you and your dragon come down immediatly. We beleive the relationship you and your dragon have will be able to help... To negotiate. You won't be put in harms way, and if you're beleived to be so you will be removed immediatly... But there's no one here that would possibly be able to reason at this point. Thankyou." After hanging Lucía goes toward the courtyard to get Tiamat and to arrive to the encounter point.

When Lucía arrives to D-corp she sees a lot of teens with they dragons but she imediataly sees Baroness or rather Tiamat sees Baroness and Tiamat runs toward her.

"Baroooooo watch " Lucía tries to warn to the poor dragon, Tiamat is not aware of her new size.

"Y'want her to what?!"

Thankfully the Preston family van hadn't been too far from the D-Corp facilities--or a freeway off-ramp--when Alan had caught Jenner on her cellphone. The faceless listened to the canned-sounding message with a scowl on her face, using the hand not occupied with holding the phone to cut across several lanes of traffic toward the nearest ramp. The GPS riding point on the dash on the passenger's side of the van beeped in protest, though it obediently shut off with Jenner jammed the phone between her shoulder and her ear and backhanded it into silence.

The voice on the other end of the line didn't seem very interested in explaining, continuing in the original vein: "--to negotiate. You won't be--"

Alerted by the noise from the front seat--not to mention the sudden violent change of direction--Indigo and Citrine looked up from the book they were reading. "Who wants who to what?" the velvet worm asked, antennae craning forward with interest.

Jenner snapped the phone shut as soon as Alan finished speaking, throwing it into the empty front seat before gripping the wheel in both hands. "Oh, nothin' serious, kiddo," she said, sending the van bumping over the median. Both kids in the back seat made exaggerated "oomf" noises, though Citrine's version was almost loud enough to deafen. "Just some fine fella from your school calling t'say they needed you back there. Pro'lly for classes or somethin' like that; I know you don't want to--"

"Is it a mission?" Indigo's antennae stood straight up and she leaned forward to stick her head between the two front seats--as if looking at the discarded cellphone would tell her more about what had happened. "Huh?! Izzit?"

"Uh," Jenner said, intelligently. Truthfully she hadn't really been paying all that much attention to the phone. She checked traffic briefly, before sending the van flying across another two lanes of traffic, over a curb, and into the D-Corp parking lot. The neatly trimmed flowerbeds escaped certain doom by scant inches. "Well, I think so, I mean, but if you don't really need t'go for your grade or anythin'--"

The van rebounded several inches off the pavement of the parking lot as Citrine launched herself out the side door, followed shortly by her (much lighter) partner. Jenner's teeth clicked shut on the rest of her reply, and she winced at the frisson of pain it sent through her jaw. "--a'right, you just g'wan an do that, then; I'll be back here in the car."

No longer in quite such a hurry, she backed the van into a parking space not far from where Nikiana (and her kids) were debarking. Rummaging under the seat, the faceless came up with a newspaper and a pack of smokes, unfolding the former and lighting up one of the latter before relaxing with one foot up on the dash and the window rolled down.

-----

It was hard to miss such a colorful assembly as the other kids and their dragons. Indigo and Citrine made a beeline for the group, the copper outpacing her partner considerably before realizing her mistake, doubling back, and lowering her head to propel the velvet worm along by way of headbutt. "(C)ome on, sstop being slow!"

"H-hey! You're the fatso who's always running around all over the place! Quit it!" Indigo said laughingly, reaching back to swat her dragon on the nose with one lower hand. Citrine nipped at the offending fingers before hauling up short as she noticed the other dragons in the group. Two reds and a black she'd met before, but there was Vorel, a gold, and a silver, two bronzes--AND a pair of greens. And others. Ugh. She snorted her displeasure, hanging back and narrowing her eyes thoughtfully.

Indigo had no such reservations, especially on noting how many of her friends were among the group of teens and preteens crowded around. "Hey guys!" she called. "...is this a mission? Mom didn't know."