Elron flew over the desert with quite some speed. The rider had regained consciousness and was now riding on Elron's back, again. He had his ankle strapped up with some cloth from his uniform. Elron knew they were almost there. They had entered the desert near the base, and it would take about ten minutes.

The desert was a desolate place, with the occasional cactice and maybe some rocky hills, or a sand snake. Elron hated the desert, there was not enough food, and if he stayed in the sun long enough the metal on his back was heated to uncomfortable levels. The rider was lucky to have that saddle, or his legs would have burnt of by now. 

He spotted the base in the distance, it was like a grey silouette in the horizon. As they got closer the rider sighed in releaf. He was probably extremely hot by now, Erlon could feel his swet dripping from the metal shell. He dived down and landed in the midst of the army of humans, being careful no to squish any of them. The rider slipped of his back and landed on the ground. He cried out in pain when he landed. 

Elron snorted at the human, they were so fragile, if he wanted to he could kill one with a single swipe of his tail. He looked around and saw three other dragons, probably just came back from other missions. He saw a red one, fire, and a yellow one, probably electric. They were the same shape as him, except he was a lot bigger, and they were all covered in scratches, probably from bullet wounds. 

"You've arrived," said a man, walking up to the rider.

He noticed the wound on his leg.

"What happened?" he asked.

"We were spotted," said the rider, "We had stettled down for the night, and then early in the morning I was woken up, by Elron. There were two helicopters coming towards us. We tried to get hidden, Elron made it but I didn't and was shot just above the ankle. I think it's broken."

"What happened to the copters?" said the man.

"I don't know, I assume that Elron either destroyed them or he got away," said the rider.

The man looked up at the dragon, "What was it, did you destroy them?"

Elron nodded his head.

"Good," said the man, "Because you would have been in big trouble if you didn't."

Elron grimanced. He had never been in 'big trouble' before, but he had seen a few dragons who had. They didn't look that great. 

"Okay," said the man, "You, get to the medical bay. You've done a good job, I assume your mission was a success."

The rider straightened up, "Yes sir!"

"Good," said the man.

Elron didn't get the deal between the humans. Some seemed to be in control of the others, maybe it was mind control, like they were using on him, but for some reason he didn't think it was. 

'Maybe they get punished if they don't do what they're told,' thought Elron.

The man pulled out his radio, "I have the metal dragon up here. Come and get it, give it something to eat and drink, then put it in the stables. It has an expection tomorrow and I want it in tip top shape."

"Yes sir," came the voice from the radio.

The man then looked at Elron, "Stay here until someone come's and get's you."

Elron bowed slightly.

"Okay then," he said, "I'd better be off."

With that he walked away. Elron growled at the man's back. He hated being called 'it'. He sat down on his haunches, waiting for someone to come and get him. The red dragon walked up to him.

"Hey Elron," growled the dragon.

"Hey," replied Elron.

The dragon sat down beside him. It was a male, and one of Elron's best friends. The dragon's name was Roackata. He was around Elron's age, ten years, and was commonly used for missions, because of his high rate of success. Elron noticed a new scratch on the tip of the dragon's snout.

"You got hit again?" he said.

Roackata nodded, "Year, the rider shot a bullet and it skimmed my nose. I was so close to throwing him off."

Elron snorted, "You should have."

"I tried," said Roackata, "But you know how it goes."

Elron nodded.

"So," said Roackata, "how did your mission go? I heard you got to fight some of those flying metal things."

Elron nodded, "It was easy, I could have taken on ten times as many and still win."

"Yeah, yeah," said Roackata, "But only because you don't need to worry about those stupid bullets."

Elron smiled at him, showing his teeth, "Yep, it's actually quite satisfieing, seeing there machines blow up, and not getting in trouble for it."

Roakata laughed, "It would be."

The two continued there convisation for another few minutes, talking about random things. To the humans it would almost be like the two were growling at each other, but it happened often so the humans didn't worry.

Eventually two scientists emerged from the building. They spotted Elron with Roackata and walked over to him. Elron saw them coming.

"Well," he said, "Look's like I have to get going, inspection tomorrow, you know how it goes."

Roackata laughed, "Try to cut one of there fingers for me."

Elron smiled," I will."

With that he turned towards the two scientists. They guestured for him to come with them, and he did. They walked through some large doors and into the scientific building thing. They went into an elivator, big enough to fit almost ten dragons side by side. They pushed a button and the lift began moving. Elron stumbled, he hated the lift. 

The doors eventually opened and they led Elron towards the dragon stables. They walked into them. There were hundreds of dragons here, all different colours and sizes. The most common were teh red ones, fire drakes. The rest were spread through them. Elron was the only metal dragon at this base, in fact, he was probably the only metal dragon in the world. There were other dragons with yellow scales, but none had the same powers, or the metal shell, that he had.

His stall was inbetween two fire females. He hated it becasue they seemed to chat none stop, it was really annoying. He began to turn towards the stable.

"No yet big guy," said one of the scientists, "We still have to give you a bath. The captain said he wanted you in top shape tomorrow, and you seem to have some rust forming on you wing."

Elron's eyes lit up. He loved baths, it was probably the only thing that he did like about this place. He had one a month usually, and this one was early. He glanced at his wing, remembering the second thing the scientist had said. Sure enough, there was a thing layer of rust forming at the edge of his wing. He shrugged, he would take care of it in the bath. 

They led through the stables and into another chamber. There was a glass window, pearing into a large tub filled with machines. The scientist walked over to the control panel and pressed a button, water flooded into the tub, along with soap. Bubbles filled the bath. 

The scientist pressed another button, letting a door open in the side of the wall.

"Off you go," said the scientist.

Elron nodded eargily and bounded towards the door. He walked in and towards the bath. He stepped into the water, it was hot, really hot, just the way he liked it. He slowly slid into the water, sighing in relief. He placed his head into the water and shook it around, unlocking any dirt molicules in his scales. 

He then heard a beep, signalling the cleaning was about to begin. He poked his head out of the water and watched as the machines surrounding the bath started to move towards him. He stretched out his wings, placing them on both sides of the bath. The machines came down, and started to scrub him. He purred with pleasure.

It took a few minutes for the cleaning to finish, but when they did he was gleaming so bright that humans outside had to shield there eyes, even his yellow scales, which were usually quite dull, were gleaming brightly. He stepped out of the bath, knowing now was the time to get out. The water disappeared through a whole.

Before he got out he tended to the rust forming on his wing. He placed his wing on the floor and scraped it off with his claws. The wing then rippled, returning to it's former state, before the rust. Elron walked towards the door and out into the room with the scientists. His scales and shell gleaming. 

The scientists then led him back to his stable. He walked inside grudgingly, brushing aside the oohs and aaahs from the two females on either side. He walked over to his nest, which was created from metal, and lay down. He yauned. Tomorrow was inspection, so he needed to get some sleep. They usually woke them up really early, and dragons prefer to sleep in.

He closed his eyes and faded into the dream world.

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Hey guys, new chapter. That's two in one day. I had nothing else to do so... yeah, here it is. Vote and comment if you liked it. See Ya!

Pennator^^