\n Chris stood at the kitchen counter, tapping his foot and occasionally checking his watch.  Not only were Karen and Tessa late being brought back from the daycare center, but a man Chris knew only as Mr. Nelson was also supposed to be there to register Tessa as a mutant.  It was nearing three in the afternoon, and both parties should have arrived close to half an hour ago.  What was taking them so long?

\n Finally, he heard the far-off sound of a car engine, though it seemed oddly loud.  His security system couldn't alert him, as two nights ago the sensing-wire had broken somewhere on the edge of his property, and that could take a full day to find and repair, depending on the location of the break.  Chris looked towards the silent grey box in the foyer, wishing it still worked.

\n Another minute or so passed, then Chris saw a dark blue sports car through the kitchen window.  It pulled to a stop in front of the garage and a young man got out, looking around at the sky.  He seemed to be in his late twenties and was about Chris' height, but much thinner, with bleached-blonde hair, khaki shorts and a bright orange shirt.  He pulled a backpack from the back seat of his car, then walked across the patio to the front door, still looking up at the sky.

\n Chris opened the door and walked out to meet him, eyes drawn to the triangular silver badge with an orange 6 in the center that was pinned to the man's shirt.  "Hello," he said, holding out a hand, "you must be Mr. Nelson.  My name's Christopher Drake."

\n The other man shook his hand.  "Please, call me Sean.  'Mr. Nelson' makes me feel so old--though I guess I am old, so I deserve it."

\n "Chris," he replied, then looked Sean up and down.  "Old?  I'm not called 'old' yet, and you can't be much more than half my age.  You won't have to worry about 'old' for another thirty years."

\n Sean laughed.  "If you think you're twice my age, then I'm really at least three times yours; my mutation has greatly extended my life and slowed my aging, though I'm not sure for how long.  I'm a hundred and forty years old."

\n Chris stared dumbly.

\n "I was the very first mutant, you know," Sean continued.  "Nobody knew what was going on with me when it happened, but when another mutant developed in Egypt, we started to figure it out.  Of course, we still have no idea why mutants exist, we just know that they do."

\n "A hundred and forty?" Chris repeated.

\n Sean rolled his eyes.  "Yes, a hundred and forty."  He started looking around again.  "Where's...  Tessa, if I remember properly?"

\n The question helped Chris recover from his surprise.  "The daycare service is late; I told them to bring her and her sister back by 2:30, but they aren't here yet.  But until then, I think I remember you mentioning you had paperwork for us to go through..."

\n "Not a lot of it, but some," Sean said.  "Sorry it took so long to come out here, but I was busy over in the French province helping to register and control a very odd Class Seven who had just developed.  I've never seen anything like it before: whenever the man blinked, his body produced the equivalent of a flash grenade, temporarily blinding and deafening everyone around him.  He was deaf himself, so he couldn't hear the bangs going off, and he couldn't see the flashes because they happened while his eyes were closed.  It took a long while to figure out how to bring that under control so he could go out in public again, but we got him set up nicely.  Tessa's ability isn't quite that dangerous, is it?"

\n Chris shook his head.  "She can lengthen her arms a lot, that's all."

\n "Her legs, too?"

\n "Not that I've noticed."

\n "When she stretches her arms out, do they keep the same joint orientation, or do they get all rubbery?"

\n "I think they stay the same."

\n Sean nodded.  "All right, a fairly simple Class Two, I think, but I'll have to see her myself to be sure.  Now, you mentioned getting the paperwork out of the way..."

\n "Oh, right," Chris said, making for the door.  "Come inside, and we'll sit down."

\n Chris walked right inside, but Sean hesitated in the doorway.  "It--  It smells sort of odd out here, have you noticed?"

\n Chris raised an eyebrow.  "Could be the cattle pastures, if the wind's out of the west."

\n Sean shook his head.  "No, it's out of the northeast right now..."  He shrugged.  "I don't know.  It's familiar, but I can't quite tell what it is.  Anyway, to work."

\n Sean and Chris sat down at the kitchen counter, and Sean pulled a folder from his backpack.  He removed some forms for Chris to fill out and handed him a pen, then took a second set of forms and started to complete them himself.

\n Chris bent over his papers and filled in all the blanks.  Most of them were basic form staples like name, date of birth, and UN Universal ID #, but others made him stop to consider, such as, "description of ability," "history of violence," and, most ominously, "prior abuse of abilities."  When Chris got to the end and signed his name as, "parent or legal guardian, with full understanding of the laws and regulations concerning underage mutants," he breathed a sigh of relief.

\n Sean looked up from his forms.  "You done?"  Chris nodded, so Sean took the papers from him, looked them over, then folded them so they were open to the page where Tessa would sign her name.

\n Once that was done, Sean returned to his forms.  Chris watched him, then walked to the pantry to get a pretzel.  He took one for himself, then asked, "do you need anything to eat or drink?"

\n "I'm fine," Sean said without looking up.

\n Chris shrugged and put the box away, then poured himself a glass of water from the tap.  He tried to eat quietly, but it was almost impossible with a hard pretzel, and he didn't help his manners by staring almost constantly at Sean's Class Six badge; he couldn't help but wonder what his ability might be, especially if it had extended his life in such a way.

\n Curiosity got the better of him.  When Sean paused to turn a page, Chris said, "if you don't mind me asking, Sean, what can--  I mean, what's your ability?"

\n Sean put down his pen and looked up.  "You know, some mutants consider it rude to be asked what their abilities are."  He let that sink in, then smiled a little bit.  "I'm not one of them, though.  As for my mutation, I might show you and Tessa when all the work's done with.  Now, has she been adjusting well to her new identity?  It can be hard to predict how they'll react when they develop at this age, so..."

\n He shook his head.  "She cried a bit when it first happened, but even the next morning she seemed to be ready to accept it, and I haven't noticed any problems since then--nothing related to her mutation, at least, and she isn't shy to show it off, either.  I've actually had to hide the gummy bears because the top shelf of the pantry isn't out of her reach anymore," he grinned.

\n "And are you handling it well?  It can be hard on parents, too."

\n "Oh, no, I'm fine," he said quickly.  "It was a little stressful convincing the daycare to accept an unregistered mutant, but I managed."

\n "She's one of the lucky ones, you know.  You should think of this as something good that's happened to her, not the other way around."

\n Chris raised an eyebrow.  "Hmm?"

\n "She's a developmental mutant.  Only a tenth of mutants get that name, and it's those who we hear the most about--the ones who can levitate and run impossibly fast and do all those other cool things like in those old X-Men comic books.  But all the others are physical mutants: the ones with flippers for hands, three and a half arms, corrosive blood...  Just keep in mind she could have turned out like that.  She's one of the lucky ones."

\n "I will."  The sound of a vehicle's wheels outside made Chris' head snap up; he still wasn't used to not being forewarned by his security system.  I really need to get that fixed, he thought, then said, "that'll be Karen and Tessa now; I'll go and get them."

\n Sean stood and followed Chris out the door, where the twins were just getting out of the van.  Karen closed the van door and the two of them started to run across the patio, but they faltered for just a moment when they saw Sean standing next to their father.

\n "Girls, this is Mr. Nel--  I mean, Sean.  Tessa, he's here to get you registered as a mutant.  Sean, this is Karen, and Tessa."

\n Sean raised his eyebrows.  "Identical twins, but only one with a mutation?  I'm going to have to mention this to Elaine, see if she's ever heard of anything like this."

\n "Why, is it strange?"

\n "I don't know, I've never seen a twin be a mutant before.  This is interesting."

\n "Right, well, let's get inside."  Once they were back indoors, Chris sent Sean and Tessa into the family room, then picked out an afternoon snack to keep Karen occupied.  He and Karen were just sitting down when he heard another loud car's engine outside.

\n Sean was at the window before Chris had even gotten out of his chair.  "Is someone--" he began, but then another car pulled into view past the bend in the driveway.  "Oh, it's just another Callahan," he muttered.  "Not often you see two of those in one place...  That one has the new SGR body option, though."  He returned to the family room then, leaving Chris to realize that Sean's car and the newcomer's were almost identical.  In fact, Chris couldn't tell them apart at all--they were even the same color--so he would have to go by Sean's word that the two cars were in fact different.

\n "Karen, you can take your snack to your room," Chris said.  "I'll see who it is."

\n He watched as another man got out of the new car.  He paused to look at Sean's for a moment, then started to walk over towards the front door, a folder in his hand.

\n He opened the door and stepped outside when the man reached the porch.  "Chris Drake?" the man asked after a moment's hesitation.

\n "That's me," he said.  "Can I help you?"

\n "My name is David Fuller.  I think you met my brother, Jim, a couple of weeks back?"

\n "Yes, I did.  Why, what brings you here?  Jim said he was done working at the ruins a week and a half ago, at least."

\n "Well, you know how Jim found that dragon skeleton?"

\n "Yeah..."  Chris could tell where this was going.

\n "He had me come here because I'm a biologist, and he claimed to have found evidence that there was a live one living in the valleys somewhere around here and wanted me to try to capture and study it.  We--"

\n "Oh," he interrupted, frowning.  "You."

\n Dave raised an eyebrow.  "...me?"

\n He nodded.  "You.  Come inside."

\n Dave faltered, flushing, but followed Chris inside.  Chris picked up his glass for a sip of water, then turned back to face him as Dave sat down at one of the stools on the other side of the counter.  "You need anything to drink?" he asked.

\n "A glass of water is fine," Dave said.  He returned to the counter with a glass for him, taking another mouthful from his own.  During the silence, Sean's voice drifted out of the family room.

\n "Oh, that's very nice.  Have you been practicing doing that?"  That was followed by a giggle from Tessa.  Chris paused and peeked into the room; Tessa had both her arms lengthened and was doing a handstand with her feet almost on the ceiling.

\n "My daughter's in there getting her mutant registrations done," he said, returning to the counter.  But anyway..."  He paused.  "You know."

\n Dave hesitated again, eying him warily.  "What do I know?"

\n "Come on, don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about.  Carnoc already told me what happened, and if you're the one telling me this then you must have been there when it happened.  You found him."

\n "Who's Carnoc?"

\n Chris noticed the folder in Dave's hand again.  "Can I see that?"

\n Dave passed the folder to him.  He opened it, and was presented with a photograph of Carnoc drinking at the pond, as he was moments before his capture.  He turned the folder around and pointed at the photo.  "He's Carnoc."

\n "That's his name?" Dave asked, unnecessarily, then connected the name to what Chris had said a moment ago.  "Wait, he can speak English?"

\n "Of course!  Why, didn't he talk to you?"

\n He shook his head, taking the folder back from Chris.  "He tried to kill us, not talk to us!  We were lucky the restraints held, or Jim and I would both be dead."

\n "If you had found anyone but Carnoc, you probably wouldn't have been in danger--well, maybe a few of them would have given you some trouble, but not like Carnoc could have.  Is that why you came?  To warn me that there's a dangerous dragon on my property?"

\n Dave nodded.  "That, and--"  His cell phone rang.  "Sorry, but that's probably Jim, and I'll have to answer if it is."  He turned away and took his cell phone from his pocket, flipped it open and held it to his ear.  "Hey."

\n Chris couldn't hear what the person on the other end of the line was saying, but Dave was talking loudly enough.  "I'm already here.  ...because I got tired of waiting, that's why, and I didn't want to show up at dinnertime...  Well, at least you're alive, I guess.  Twenty-four of them?"  Chris bit his lip at that; there were twenty-four dragons in the clan, and when put into context with the rest of Dave's comments...  What were Dave and Jim doing here now?  "You're already on your way to Chicago?  That's some fast work.  But I have to tell you, I've been talking to Chris, and he says--  ...no, I don't think so.  Look, Jim, would you just--"

\n Dave sighed and closed the phone; evidently Jim had hung up on him.  "Sorry, but my brother...  Oh, never--"  Then he looked up and saw Chris' face, eyes wide and mouth slightly open.  "What?"

\n "Twenty-four what?" Chris asked.

\n "That's what I was about to tell you about; Jim put together this whole plan recently.  I didn't like it, especially now, knowing what you just told me, but it's too late, I guess..."

\n "What did he do?"

\n "He brought some hunters to the cave where those dragons live.  They captured all of them, so he can show them to the world and then auction them off to zoos and the like.  Said it would be the best for everyone, but I don't know about that, especially after what you've told me."

\n Chris started walking towards the door.  "Come on.  We have to stop him before he figures out a way to move them all out of the cave."

\n Dave stayed seated.  "That's what he called me about.  He had already figured it out before he came.  He's got them all in trailers, heading out to Chicago for a press conference tomorrow morning."

\n Chris bit his tongue; there were a lot of things he wanted to say right now, but they wouldn't help the situation.  "Then we'll have to go after him," he decided.  He picked up his glass of water, taking a sip to calm himself down, and more conversation was heard from the family room.

\n "...all set; here, put your badge on.  You're the world's newest registered mutant!"

\n Tessa could be heard giggling again, then she said, "Mr. Nelson, what's your power?  You got to see mine, so can you tell me yours?"

\n After a moment, Sean said, "I can turn into a dragon."

\n Chris almost choked on his mouthful of water.  He practically sprinted into the family room, not even bothering to put down his glass; Dave followed close behind him.  "What did you say?" he asked before Tessa could say anything.

\n "I can turn into a dragon," Sean repeated.  "Would you like to see?"

\n "Yes!" Tessa said, and Chris and Dave nodded their agreement.

\n Sean gave them a strange look, then picked up his backpack.  "All right, then, let's go outside."  He walked back out onto the patio, the other four trailing behind him--Karen had come out, too, having heard the commotion.  Chris wasn't sure what to think.  Could this man actually turn into a dragon, or was it some sort of imitation?  And either way, what would it mean?

\n Sean stopped in the middle of the patio and put down his backpack, then took a strange cube from inside it and set it down in front of him.  The cube grew until Sean and his backpack were inside it, then all its faces turned opaque, hiding him from view.

\n After about a minute, Chris asked, "just how long does it take?"

\n "The actual process?" Sean paused.  "The first time I actually shifted on purpose, it took me a couple of hours, but since I've been practicing for so long I can do it in about forty-five seconds now.  What takes time is that I have to strip down before I change, otherwise I'd tear my clothing to shreds.  That's why I have the blackout cube."  He stuck his head out the side of the cube.  "Unless you were particularly hoping to see me naked?"  He grinned, then his head disappeared back into the cube.

\n After a moment, the cube began to expand, and Dave, Chris and his daughters backed away to the edge of the patio.  The cube continued to grow until most of the open patio space was taken up, then it stopped, they heard a satisfied growl, and the sides of the cube disappeared.

\n A dragon stood there, neck arched and head held high, wings only loosely folded, back held straight and tail curving smoothly downward.  The dragon spread its wings and roared, then looked down at the humans at the edge of the patio.
\n "Like it?" Sean asked, his voice much lower in this new form.

\n "It's a dragon, all right," Chris said, "but what's with your wings?  They're all discolored."

\n Sean spread one of his wings and looked at it, where the membrane was a dark red-orange mixed with grey.  "I was a popular target for assassination attempts back when mutants were so rare, especially when I was doing a lot of political work to get us properly integrated into society.  After nearly being killed a couple of times while in this form, I had a reflective mesh sewn into my wings that can deflect laser and stunning weapons.  It hurt to have it put in, but it's been worth it."  After a moment, he continued, "wait, what do you mean?  Have you seen a dragon before?"

\n Chris couldn't help but smile.  "That's what brought Dave here, actually.  Dragons live on this very property, in secret--or, it used to be secret, but you can blame Dave and his brother for that."

\n Sean lowered his head, lips pulling back a bit to reveal a mouth full of sharp teeth.  "Why, what have they done?"

\n Dave stepped back, away from the exposed fangs.  "Don't blame me, I didn't want Jim to do it.  But he decided to capture them all, and he wants to auction them all off to zoos."

\n Karen looked up at Dave.  "Someone wants to take away our dragons?"

\n Dave sighed.  "He's already done it."

\n Karen and Tessa both looked at him, shocked, then started to cry.  Chris didn't move to comfort them; he didn't know what to say, and Dave wasn't any help either.

\n "Someone has to free them," Sean growled.

\n "You work for the government; couldn't you do something about it?"

\n "I work for them, but I only have a say when there's something going on that has to do with mutants.  The people who make the real decisions would have no reason to listen to me."

\n "Then we can take matters into our own hands," Chris said.

\n "And just how are we supposed to do that?" Dave demanded.  "Jim has all the dragons locked up tight, and sedated, too, not to mention all the security they'll have.  Plus, it would probably involve some sort of illegal activity..."

\n Sean shrank back, as if the information scared him.  But then he said, "well, I suppose in this form I would be able to fight them, but as soon as they saw me I'd be brought down.  Though I would be able to attack them from pretty far away.  ...actually, Chris, if you know a lot about dragons, then you can probably answer a couple of questions I have: first, how long do dragons live?"

\n "Around five hundred years, usually."

\n He paused and looked at the ground, then continued, "all right.  Also, aren't dragons supposed to be able to breathe fire?"

\n "Yes, they can.  Why?"

\n "Well, I can't.  Instead, I...  Well--  I should probably just show you."  Sean looked around, then opened his mouth and launched a bolt of concentrated, swift-moving fire that struck a nearby boulder and blasted the top clean off of it, leaving scorch marks around the edges.

\n Chris stared at the boulder, then back at Sean.  He thought for a moment, then asked, "how long are you, nose to tail?"

\n "Last I measured, twenty meters and twenty-two centimeters."

\n "Jesus, you're even larger than Carnoc.  But how on earth would you have Vidac's blood in you?"

\n Sean hesitated, then the black cube appeared around him again.  "I'm shifting back, but keep talking.  Who's Vidac?"

\n "He's a dragon from a very long time ago.  I don't know the whole story, but he was a lot larger than average, had gold scales, and could do... what you just did.  The only other dragon who can do that right now is Carnoc, a descendant of his.  The thing is, you obviously don't have Vidac as one of your ancestors, so I have no idea how you could possibly be capable of firing his bolt."

\n "I don't know, either," Sean said from inside the cube, the pitch of his voice drifting higher as he returned to his human form.  "The only things I know about dragons I've observed from myself.  What are they like, dragons?"

\n Chris shrugged.  "Hard to say.  I don't think they're all that different from humans, myself, but I did grow up with them, so I could just be used to the things that make them different.  But they're nice enough, assuming you're nice to them...  Or the males are, anyway; I've never met a female.  They all live in..."  He hesitated and glanced at Dave, then said, "they live somewhere else.  The males are easy to live with, anyway, but Carnoc loses his temper a lot.  He's nice enough if he likes you, but he tends to lose control of himself, which," he turned to face Dave, "could explain why he didn't talk to you at all."

\n "He did seem angry," Dave said.

\n "Well, either way, we have to go after them," Sean said from inside his cube.  "I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea of my half-race all being imprisoned like this, and I want to do something about it."

\n "We'd never catch them.  They'll be in the truck-only lanes, and they already have a half-hour's head start, at least...  Besides, I don't even know how to get there.  Even with my Callahan, we'd never catch up."

\n Sean's cube disappeared, and he was back in his human form (fully clothed).  "Yours might not be able to, but mine can.  Nice car, by the way."

\n "Thanks, but how can yours when mine can't?  Yours looks at least five years older than mine."

\n "It's a CJR for a reason, you know.  As long as you can tell me where we're going, I can get us there faster than the trucks can.  Though freeing the dragons will be another matter entirely."

\n Dave nodded.  "Well, Jim's separating them.  One dragon is going with him to Chicago to be in the background while the ARA announces that dragons exist, then he'll take that one to join the others in Colorado, where he's going to hold an auction at his friend's house on Sunday."

\n "Can you convince him not to carry out the rest of his plan?"

\n "Not at this point.  He's probably convinced himself I'm jealous of him."

\n "Well, then, here's what I'm thinking: we have to let him carry out the press conference.  Even if we were able to free that dragon, he'd still have the rest and he'd be sure to put more security around them to make sure they didn't get a chance to escape.  And that assumes that he wouldn't find out who helped that dragon escape, because otherwise he'd just have us arrested as thieves."

\n "Who ever said we are all doing this?"

\n "Didn't you say that you didn't want Jim to do it?"

\n "Well, yes, but I'm supposed to be at work tomorrow, and..."

\n "Then you want the dragons free," Chris said.  "I wish I could say it would be easy enough for me to just go free them on my own, but we all know that's not true.  I need the two of you to help me."

\n "I'll do it," Sean said instantly.

\n Dave frowned.  "Can you at least give me a moment to decide whether I want to do this or not?"

\n "We could use all the help we can get," Sean said to Chris while Dave thought through his options.  "Is there anyone else who knows about dragons?"

\n "The local vet knows, along with my siblings and my parents.  But I was thinking I'd need my parents to watch Karen and Tessa while we went to the auction, and my brother and sisters are employed all over the world making enough money to help me sustain this property, so they won't be able to help.  And the vet knows about dragons, but he isn't involved with them enough for me to ask him to do something like this."

\n "But we are?" Dave raised an eyebrow.

\n "I could argue it's your fault the dragons have been captured in the first place, seeing as you're the one who wrote that report that'll be coming out tomorrow."

\n He hesitated, then said, "fine, I'll help.  I can ask Jim about the auction and get close to the dragons without him suspecting me of anything.  He won't like it if he finds out I'm working against him, but...  Well, we'll have to see how things go."

\n "We'll need some sort of plan," Sean said.

\n "And I have to ask Jim where Alex's house is.  I guess I'll call and tell him I might drop by the auction, but I don't know how to get there; that will make things easier."

\n "You'll have to pass that information on to us early enough for all of us to have time to get there," Chris said.  "It's a long drive to Colorado from here, let alone wherever you two live."

\n "I can help with that," Sean said.  "I can get all of us to Colorado from anywhere in the North American province in less than six hours... assuming I don't have to stop for a new fuel block, that is.  My Callahan really burns through the blocks when it's in flight mode."

\n That got everyone to stare at him.  "Flight mode?"  Chris looked over towards Sean's car.  "That thing flies?"

\n Sean nodded.  "You bet it does.  Chris, obviously I'll pick you up here, but Dave, I'll need to know where you live."

\n Dave gave him the address of his house, in the suburbs of Sacramento.

\n "Right," Sean entered the location into his phone, then picked up his backpack.  "We all need to exchange phone numbers, too, not to mention figure out how we're going to free these dragons.  Or would it be best to figure out how exactly they're being held before coming up with a plan?"

\n "We should wait to do that until we know what security we're up against," Dave said.

\n Chris smiled and said, "thanks, both of you, for helping me.  I appreciate it, and I know the clan will, too, if we manage to get them all out.  I need to go talk to my parents about this, so I'll see you two on Sunday sometime."

\n "All right."  They all got each others' phone numbers, then said goodbye and went their separate ways: Sean and Dave to their cars, and Chris, Karen and Tessa indoors.  Chris needed to call his parents about taking care of the twins, Dave needed to call Jim about the auction and Sean... he needed to make a few calls of his own.