(Narrator POV)

The day after the finals, the team take a plane headed for London. On the plane, the team can be seen recovering from a night of celebration. After their victory in the final simulation Staff Sgt. Guile brought the team out for some drinks, they immediately turned it into a party. Vera looks fine, she really only drank enough to get tipsy, though to be fair was quite a bit. Vaughn is completely knocked out. He got (forgive my crudeness) shit-faced drunk and is sleeping off the hangover. Fane also looks normal, strange since she was partying like mad. By that I mean she sent at least seven people to the hospital (bar fights you know?). And finally the kitsunes, they didn’t drink much, so they’re fine. Vera notices Fane teetering back and forth a bit in her seat.

“You know, I was wondering if you actually could handle all that alcohol. You okay?” Vera teases.

“I… Can handle anything. We drakes have the… Greatest metabolism of anything on the plane- BLAAARRGGGHH” Fane pukes into a vomit bag.

“So you say,” Vera smirks wiley at Fane.

“I just have airsickness!” Fane defends herself.

“But you fly? That shouldn’t be a thi-” Vera is cut off by Fane puking again. The kitsunes laugh at the drake’s misfortune. Fane looks at them small flames can be seen pittering from her lips, only pittering, probably due to her hangover.

“If you keep laughing like that I’m gonna tear your stupid little tails out through your belly buttons and shove them down your thro- mmmpph!” Fane holds back another emesis.

“Anyway, how long is this going to take?” Vera wonders to herself.

“We should be almost there, now,” Vaughn grumbles from his seat.

“I thought you were sleeping?” Fane asks still leaning over the vomit bag.

“Kinda hard with all the noise! You sound like a broken water pipe,” Vaughn says, unmoving. Fane stares at him angrily but says nothing, due to her not wanting to trigger another puke-attack. The plane arrives at London City Airport, now fortified into a military checkpoint, and they get off the plane. While at the airport they get onto the helicopter that was purchased by Vaughn while the supply copters are being filled with their equipment. When they lift off the supply copters lead them to No Man’s Fort, their new home. While the team lands their helicopter on the helipad, the supply copters are forced to land on the grass, one at a time. The team hustles to unload the cargo until the third and largest of the supply copters lands. A man in a gaudy suit jumps out of the supply copter with a clipboard and starts checking things off a list. While he’s doing this Vaughn and Fane take the cloning equipment down to the infirmary. All of the equipment is in a single crate that’s huge and very heavy, luckily Fane is demonically strong for a drake. Suddenly Vaughn notices the box they’re carrying getting heavier, Vera has slithered on top of the box and began sleeping.

“Vera, goddamn it! Get off!” Vaughn yells, his arms beginning to go numb.

“Huh? The fuck’s up with you?” Asks Fane, surprised by Vaughns sudden outburst.

“Vera’s on top of the box… wait… you didn’t notice?” Vaughn asks.

“No, I didn’t,” Fane says innocently. Fane looks up, sees Vera and signals Vaughn to put down his side of the crate. They drop the box, Vera still snoozing like a villain.

“Hey! Dicktits, get off the fucking box!” Fane yells up at Vera.

“Mmmph, oh yeah…” Vera grumbles in her sleep, Fane and Vaughn mildly uncomfortable with her reaction.

“What do you think she’s dreaming about?” Asks Vaughn already having an idea of what it might be.

“Probably fucking a chick with her tail, fucking lesbo freak,” Fane announces bluntly.

“Yeah, Fane, scream louder for me…” Vera grumbles some more. Vaughn’s eyes widen, afraid to look in the direction of the glowing to his right. Fane is outraged.

“You motherfucking snake!” Fane screams, grabbing Vera by her hanging tail and throws her across the room. Vera slams into the far wall.

“Wh-what the hell?!” Vera finally wakes up. She looks up at Fane’s darkened figure standing before her, knuckles cracking, flames pouring from her mouth.

“Uh, Fane? What’s wrong… w-we can talk about this!” Fane lifts her fist. Vera coils defensively and braces herself.

“Fane! I can’t move this thing without you, stop messing around and help me!” Vaughn yells, next to the crate. Fane turns.

“I’ll help you when I’m done killing this cunt sucking piece of shi-” Fane turns back to find Vera had run off while she was yelling at Vaughn.

“Look, she got away, you cool?” Vaughn asks, kind of annoyed.

“Yeah, she got away, whatever I don’t care anymore… though the next time I see her I’m gonna cut her down the length of her snake body and tear out her organs li-” Vaughn cuts Fane off.

“Ok, ok cool, now help me… please.” Vaughn asks sternly. Fane, not saying a word snorts smoke from her nose and lifts up her side and they carry on toward the infirmary. Vera slithers outside and is looking out to the ocean.

(Vera POV)

Geez did she have to get so mad at me? I think to myself as I sit outside on the base’s roof, next to the diving board into the ocean. What did I even do? She did grab my tail though, heh, so… that’s a plus. I scan the area around me. Looking at it, though, this place is pretty small. I hear it goes down quite a ways so I guess it’s fine. Anyway, I should look around, get accustomed to the base. The outside area’s pretty nice with a grassy patch, currently getting crushed by helicopter wheels. There are two jacuzzis and a firepit on the grass; and a bar building just off the grass patch. And since this used to be a luxury home there’s a giant skylight in the center. Vaughn and Fane should have moved on so I’ll head inside. I slide into the lighthouse building and take the stairs down to what would be ground floor. Huh, This place is gorgeous. They left the top floor pretty much intact, with the skylight, the plants, the indoor swimming pool room and of course the snooker room, maybe Vaughn would be willing to play some billiards later. Not to mention most of this place is the atrium. One of the few differences, however, is the gift shop has been turned into a mini-armory, some of our spare weaponry is in there. I look over from the armory at the nearly caved in wall. And there’s the indent Fane made using me… that really hurt. Also, there are a bunch of door with numbers on them, these are our bedrooms. I slither up to the presidential suite. I couldn’t believe it at first but this is my room.

I got the presidential suite because it’s the largest room in the fort, save for the ward room, and so, can house a bath big enough to fit my entire body without eating up all the room’s space. Never in my life have I imagined living in a place as expensive as this, the presidential suite. I almost feel dirty living in such luxury during war times. Well, let’s go down a floor. I leave my room and take the elevator, to my right, down. This is where things start getting interesting. This place was renovated into a military base for the most part. I walk out of the elevator. Hmm, the second floor is a lot nicer than I thought. It’s not as dull as I figured it’d be. For the mean time, let’s start with the infirmary. Upon entering the sounds of a power drill can be heard from the back of the room. We have a Neo-Medical Bay installed, so it looks pretty futuristic, four healing pods, many recovery beds and of course the cloning equipment being set up by a maintenance worker while Vaughn and Fane watch closely, that’s where all the noise is coming from.

“Hmm?” Fane looks over at my direction. Damn it! I dive behind a hospital bed. Ok, I don’t think Fane saw me, I’ll just creep around these two and move to the next room.

“What’s wrong?” Vaughn asks.

“I thought I sensed a punching bag walk in,” Fane states, I know damn well what she’s getting at.

“What does that even… *sigh* let’s just get back to work.” Vaughn sighs and the worker continues his lesson on setting up the cloning pod. I silently slither out the door. Well now that I’m out of there, I’ll just stroll into the Storage room. In this room, we have ammunition, food rations and spare gear stocked up down here. I look toward the far side of the room, at the stacks of crates, like a literal wall of crates, with the letters M.R.E. written on the side. That has to be Vaughn, I’m almost positive of that. What does he even see in that crap? Whatever, moving on let's get to main attraction down here. I move down the corridor to a brightly lit room. The one place that hasn’t changed is the spa. Some of us are excited by the fact we have an entire spa to ourselves, and me? Oh, I’m very excited. I imagine bathing with and getting very intimate with the twins. I can’t wait! Suddenly I hear a voice behind me.

“Well ain’t this just fucking convenient!?” I turn to see Fane behind me cracking her knuckles.

“Guess you get to tell the big guy upstairs you got the luxury to drown in a spa, That’d be great, wouldn’t you agree!?” She starts stomping toward me menacingly.

“Now just stay still you sneaky little bi-” Before she finishes I take evasive maneuvers. I charge out through the east changing room and down the hall.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going!?” I hear behind me, geez, she doesn’t let anything go, does she? I enter the mess hall. The room is pretty big for a mere four people, though to be fair it wasn’t modified and we are to hire personnel in the future, so I guess it works.

“Vera! I saw your scaley little ass slither into that fucking cafeteria” Fane’s voice shakes me a bit. I look around frantically. Do I hide in the kitchen? No, she’ll definitely look there, Fane is just easily ticked off not stupid. I spot a mini-bar in the room and dive behind the counter. I hear the mess hall door open.

“Didn’t know you preferred dying in an eatery.” I hear Fane say as she walks into the kitchen. I hear her voice faintly now.

“Y’know, I’ve only eaten snake once before at a county fair in California, can’t say it tasted bad. So I wouldn’t mind fucking eating it again when I find you!” A cold chill goes down my spine. Is she serious? Well, I don’t plan to find out. She walks out of the kitchen though I couldn't see it, I felt her scanning the room.

“Damn, where’d she go?” Fane's voice sounds defeated.

“I was only using those threats as a reason to catch her, and.. um.. tell how much I… uh... like her… er… as a woman…yeah.” She states half-heartedly. LIES! She just trying to draw me out, what do you take me for you crazy wyrm!?

*tsk*

“Damn it, guess she isn’t actually in this room. Knowing her, that would have drawn her out. Guess I’ll just forget about it till she gives me another reason to kill her later.” That monster WAS just trying to draw me out for the slaughter. I hear Fane leave the Mess Hall, I leave a couple of minutes after her. Taking the elevator back up I walk up to the roof and head into the bar. I see the kitsunes cleaning the counter.

“So, you girls are the bartenders now?” I ask, leaning on the bar counter.

“No, we’re just cleaning the place up,” Tsuki says firmly.

“But, I can get you a drink!” Taiyo says happily.

“You’re a doll,” I say slyly. I order an entire bottle of vodka. Taiyo passes me the bottle and shot glass. I start pouring and drinking, eventually downing the whole bottle, save for one more shot. Before downing it, I notice the twins looking at the clock constantly.

“Why’re you guys staring down the clock like that?” I ask.

“Oh, we asked everyone to meet here at ten.” They say casually. I look at the clock, it reads ten o’two.

“You said, everyone… right?” I ask nervously. Before the kitsunes can answer, the bar doors swing open behind me. I turn to see the silhouette of Fane walking in, Vaughn trailing behind her tiredly. She walks up to me.

“Sup!” she greets me, then notices me shaking.

“The fucks up with you? Wait, what did you do this time!?” Before she could do anything I raise the shot glass to her face, a peace offering. Fane groans and accepts it. I stare intently at her drinking the shot, she notices.

“What’re you staring at?” She glares back at me.

“I was using that glass earlier,” I say smugly.

“So?” she asks confused.

“Indirect ki-” I’m cut off by Fane creating a fireball in the shot glass using the alcohol as fuel.

“You motherfu-” She’s cut off by Vaughn.

“So why were we all called in here at this hour?” He asks politely.

“Yeah, I was wondering that too” Fane states completely, forgetting about me.

“We have a surprise for everyone!” The twins say in unison as they walk around the counter toward the bar exit. Vera just looks confused.

“This better not be a waste of my time,” Fane says annoyed.

“I agree, we are still putting things together,” Vaughn states. The twins skip outside, while the others follow behind.

“We appropriated some fireworks before we left,” they say proudly.

“Y-You stole fireworks!” Vaughn yells aghast. Behind him, Fane stands there giving a thumbs up.

“Noooooo, we didn’t steal them,” Taiyo says averting her eyes.

“We appropriated them,” Tsuki says mockingly, their faces reflect this and a slight “teehee~” can be heard under their breath.

“I swear to all that is holy, you two will pay for this.” Vaughn seems peeved off.

“Well, what’re we gonna do about it now?” I say shrugging my shoulders.

“Where’d you guys set them up?” I ask.

“Over here, I found them!” Fane yells from the helipad. She seems excited, in a good way, for once. We set up some chairs and let Fane set off the fireworks, no need for a lighter. The light show was nice, but why couldn’t I shake the feeling this night would be the last peaceful night we’ll see in a long time?