(So yeah! I'm back, and the bad story continues!)

It was morning.

It's now been seventeen years since Snowfire hatched, and she reacts to her environment amazingly. She's seventeen years old, which, in dragon years, is more like fourteen years. She and I have bonded wonderfully (Of course that doesn't get in the way of my relationship with Cupa.) And she has already learned to fly.

"Bank right!"

"Bank Left!"

We soared through the air as two Shadow biplanes chased us. Four more trailed behind them, but the first two were the only ones causing trouble. Machine gun fire ripped the air around us as Snowfire and I dodged bullets with ease. 

"Confusion maneuver!" I shouted, and she spun horizontally in air, causing difficulty with the Shadow's targeting systems. 

This was a trick we learned from her father before he died, and we found very useful in air combat. As we spun, I turned around and fired at one of the biplanes with my M1911 pistol. I hit the plane's engine, causing it to explode. I reached onto my left hand, (my metal one) and pressed a button. 

A grappling hook shot out of the hand and attached itself to the wing of the second plane. I held onto Snowfire's back as hard as I could, and commanded her to make a sharp upwards turn. We took the plane with us, and I cut the line attached to the plane, and its engine stalled, causing the plane to deactivate and fall to a gruesome death below. 

"Alright Snowfire, let's bring the heat to the last guys." Snowfire angled herself towards the last four planes, charging them head on. Snowfire opened her mouth, exposing the phosphorus gland in her throat, which reacted to the oxygen and caught fire. 

She blew out her mouth, spreading the fire everywhere. We charged through the four remaining planes, incinerating them. Snowfire closed her mouth, and I patted her back. "Good girl. You're getting a treat for that." I told her. "Let's head home."

We landed in the IJL campus, and Christina (Who was now my personal assistant) ran up to meet us. "Welcome back, general!" She said happily. "I brought you some cookies and raw steak for Snowfire!" I took the tray with the cookies on them. "Thanks, Christina." I replied, taking the raw steak and tossing it in the air behind me. 

Snowfire caught it mid air, and began chewing on it. I began to munch on the cookies as Christina gave me an update. "Scout needs more gold to make extra bullets." She said, reading from a clipboard "Tell him he's got enough." I said, finishing the cookies and handing the tray to Snowfire, who ate it. 

"Timeist says he needs materials to build his new suit." She finished, "And there's other unimportant stuff that was reported." I turned to her. "I'll go talk to Timeist. I'll bring him a crate of shit from the scrapyard." I said. "And take Snowfire to her stable and feed her, please."

...

I entered Timeist's workshop with a large crate of random junk from the scrapyard. "Heyyyy..." I said, looking at him. "You asked for stuff?" Timeist had a welder's mask and work gloves on, and wasn't wearing his normal clothes. He pulled up his mask to see me. "Oh, hey." He said. He had long, black hair that came down to his neck, and his eyes were a warm auburn color. "I barely see you without your armor suit on." I said to him. "I hear you're working on a new one?" Timeist nodded. 

"Yeah. The old one is kinda rusty, and after seeing Drakmir's gauntlets, I wanted a new suit." He said as he picked up two maroon-colored gauntlets from the work table. "Stand back. You'll want to see this." He strapped one of the gauntlets to his right wrist, and held it up.

 He pressed a button, and a jet of flame shot out of the gauntlet, illuminating the room. He pressed another button and turned it off. "Woah. That's pretty cool." I commented. "Yeah. The other one shoots a rocket, but I'm also working to see if I can get multiple functions on just the two gauntlets." He replied. He put on the helmet, which was a dome-ish shape with a T-shaped black visor on the front, and a flashlight and antennae attached to the right side. He pressed a button on the flashlight, turning it on and off. 

"See the antennae?" He said. "It can block and intercept radio frequencies. We might be able to stop the Shadows from communicating across the land. I'm also working on a Jetpack to attach to the back of the bodysuit." he finished. "This is all pretty cool." I said to him. "Thanks. Also, thanks for bringing the crate." he replied. "You're welcome." I said, walking out of the room.

...

"Sir!" said a soldier that approached me. "You need to see this." I followed him into the war planning room, where Rocket was standing, looking at a computer screen. "General in the room!" He shouted when he saw me, and he and the others in the room stood at attention and saluted. 

"At ease." I said, and they all went at ease. "We've just received a message. We think it's in code, but we don't know how to decipher it." Rocket said. He gestured at the computer screen, where the message was opened up.

Nifd het lafg

No het ulednig gdbie

Yrou xetn ulcue liwl

Eb hetre

"It's coded." I said, observing it. "Did you decipher it using our code?" I asked Rocket. He nodded. "It doesn't say anything." he responded. I looked closer at the message, while Rocket spoke with the other soldiers. I suddenly realized something. 

"The." I said. 

Rocket turned to me. "What?" He asked. 

"It's a bunch of scrambled words," I explained, pointing at one of the words. "H-E-T translates to THE." I say. We worked on the message until we completely deciphered it.

Find the flag

On the dueling bridge

Your next clue will

Be there

"We have to go to the dueling bridge." I said, reading the message. "I'll get Snowfire. Prepare a small party to follow me in a gunship." I told Rocket.

...

We found a solitary, tattered red flag in a desolate part of the dueling bridge. A large cloud of fog had set on the landscape, so it was difficult to spot. I landed Snowfire, and the gunship followed suit. A piece of paper was tied to the flagpole. I untied the rope and took the paper.

Congratulations

You found it

Your journey starts here

Send the blue rider south alone

He will find an island

I will meet him there

"Could be a trap." Rocket said after he read the note. "Or worse." I turned to him. "I'll bring Snowfire with me." I said to him. "I can handle it." I mounted up on Snowfire, who began to take off. "Don't follow me, Whatever you do!" I yell back at them before Snowfire dashes off into the fog.

...

Snowfire and I flew through the fog, unable to see anything. I looked down, scanning the ocean below for an island. "Maybe Rocket was right, Snowfire." I spoke to her. "Maybe this is a trap." Snowfire didn't respond. She was too busy concentrating on flying. Suddenly, I heard a strange noise overhead. It was very faint, but it sounded like the buzzing of planes. I looked up, but I couldn't see anything. 

"Snowfire. Fly low to the water." Snowfire swooped down until she was skimming the top of the ocean. I kept looking up, and the buzzing noise got louder. It sounded like the hum of a Biplane engine. Suddenly, the noise went silent. I let out a sigh of relief. "It was nothing." I said to myself.

Then the planes began to fall out of the sky.