The Silver Reckoning

Chapter 11: Metallic Equilibrium

Eldawin watched, worried, as the metallic power of Silver's equilibrium flooded the room. The air around them flinched and shimmered much like an illusion. The taste and scent of metal assaulted his senses, causing him to snort and take a step back, shaking his head. It was far too late to stop it. Far too late to do anything about it.

For a moment the mind dragon considered reaching for his own hidden power, but immediately discounted the idea. His own equilibrium didn't work as well as usual on dragons that had lost control. That left only one option. He turned around and used his tail to hit a switch behind him. Part of the wall fell away, revealing a long corridor. He didn't hesitate and quickly ran forward, flapping his wings and pushing himself into the corridor.

A moment later the full power of equilibrium was achieved through the silver dragoness. She didn't explode into metal, nor did she unleash her power on the room around her. Instead she retained her dragon form, the metal covering her body moving like liquid, constantly flowing over around around her wings, down to her claws and along her tail. Her eyes flashed open, their silvery glow casting a strange light throughout the room.

She could see everything, like the world had suddenly been opened up. Every spot of metal in the A.O.D.H base was part of her. It connected with her, and she to it, so it told her everything. It showed her the dragons in their pens, getting to their feet, slightly fearful of the power waves running through the base. It showed her the humans, rushing back and forth as their alarms blared. It showed her the small group of dragons in a room right above her, waiting their turn for the mental testing. It showed her the fleeing mind dragon, as he sped through the escape tunnel he had created. She saw it all and felt... nothing. But she knew what she had to do.

She leapt forward toward the wall where Eldawin had disappeared, and collided with it, but instead of falling back  her body melded into the metal of the wall... and disappeared.

The mind dragon knew he was getting close to the top now, the opening that lead into the sky. As he flew he sent out a simple message to all the dragons he had under his control. 'Get out now, do whatever you have to do'. He was okay with loosing the humans, but the more dragons that died during this attack the more he would be held back from his goal.

As he reached the end of the tunnel he felt a strange shift in mental energy around him, like the metallic walls he was surrounded by had come to life. There was a pulse to his left side. He let out a growl of surprise and flared his wings, slowing down his speedy rush and narrowly avoiding the large metal spike that protruded out  from the wall. He flapped his wings again, pushing himself forward and pulling his maw into a snarl.

Another spike shot out from the wall, which he also narrowly dodged, though the tip of it ripped out a line of scales from his side. A low rumbled escaped him, but he ignored the pain. It didn't bother him at all. Growling lowly he reached out his mind into the metal surrounding him, and was surprised at what he found.

All the hate, anger, the emotional uproar that usually was the cause of equilibrium wasn't there. There was no thought process, no feeling at all. All that was there was a mindless determination, one that was focused entirely upon him. His eyes narrowed. So there was something mental controlling this force, and if there was, it meant he could use it.

Focusing on the scrap of intelligence found inside the mindless roil of metal, he took control of it, manipulated it, making it think he was in a slightly different place then he was before. The next spike that shot out from the wall went wide, missing him by a good metre. He grinned, beating his wings one more time and shooting out through the hole at the end of the tunnel and into the sky. As soon as he was out however, he was faced with another problem.