** NOTE copied in whole from alabaster/sangers/sanger-carramba1, 2, 3

The knife was quite sharp, and Crazy Doc Sanger stuck it deeply into a slab of meat. "Now, if you want to impress people with your expertise," he said, "you've got to be firm. I don't mean rigid, Dingo," he sighed at one of the near-human kids in the Interrogation class. "Firm. Confident. If all the subject sees is how intense you are, they have to comply."

"But won't that make them back up and get all... I dunno, resistant and stuff?" Asked Alala, "I mean, I would."

Sanger looked at the girl, whose physique already was several notches stronger and more 'cut' than his own. "Yes, but Alala, dear, I as a professional would never allow myself to come into contact with you, if you were to be interrogated."

She grinned widely, and someone muttered about him calling her 'dear' and stuff, that usually got someone beat.

"But I would probably use an electric cattle prod instead," Sanger said, spinning on her with one. Where it had come from was a mystery, but it stood alive in his hands, and the muscle bound "mz universe in training" leapt out of her seat like a cat.

"Jeez, Doc!" Alala said, laughing and waving her hand in front of her face like she had the vapors, "way to surprise a gal."

"It's not meant to be funny," he said. "If you - or someone built like you - were my subject I would take every opportunity to both embarrass and injure them before moving in closer. Understand?"

"What about tranq darts?" Asked Daverin.

"They take way too long to work," Taylee pointed out. "Not that I've tried them or anything."

"Of course you haven't, Taylee," Doc Sanger grinned. He put the cattle prod back behind his desk, where it zapped gently until the charge left it. "Look, I know it's almost break. But you know they want me to give you a test. How am I meant to test you if not... To actually have you interrogate people?"

"Who do we get?" Asked Dingo, a little eagerly.

"You'll have to find someone yourselves," Sanger said, looking at a clipboard. "You have until midnight on Friday. Between now and then, I want you to select a subject, bring them in to the room," he tilted his head and indicated the darkened chamber at the back of the classroom - it was supposed to be a teachers prep room but for this class he turned it into an impromptu isolation chamber. "And get information out of them."

"What kind of information?" Alala asked. "We can get normal stuff out of anybody just by asking."

"Asking is always part of the procedure," Doc Sanger reminded her. "Ten questions, at least two of which would be personal in nature and not something that would be easily gotten. And I do not want you all bringing in geeks from the Hypercalc lab. They're way too easy."

The class chuckled and wrote some more notes, as the bell was about to ring. Right before it did, Sanger looked sharply up at Daverin and said, "no you may not bring her, she is off limits."

"I didn't even-" Daverin started to say, but Sanger stood and shook his head, eyes wide open enough to display their whites, which was a bit odd for him. Normally he was sedate and his almond shaped eyes showed only the peacock blue iris. So something got him. But what?

"You do even, and I know you have Hypercalc with her, so don't even think about it. They are off limits, I said." His tone was stern but Daverin merely shrugged.

"Okay, okay, I just thought it would be fun."

"Fun is not what I would call it. The less she's in my presence the better, Daverin, and you know that. Now have fun and think of good questions." Sanger's tone turned from that steely one to a kind of false sweet, and the bell rang sharply. He'd disabled the ringer in his room so they had to rely upon the other ones in the hall. The building shook with the footfalls of every student ready for their afternoon off. Seventh period Advanced Interrogation on Monday ended their day.

While most of the students left, one or two were apt to remain on for a while and chat. However with Daverin being the way she was, that had put Sanger in a mood. Only Taylee stuck around, and she tilted her dyed-green head in a kind of concern.

"Who was she gonna bring?" She asked simply. Sanger growled a bit, while he tried to look like he was cleaning up his desk. "Well you said that just asking was always a part of our job, Doc. It's just a question. Everyone wanted to ask it."

"Keenae Sengihr, the Zekiran student. The green one." He said, gruffly.

"Oh, that biatch," Taylee rolled her eyes. "What's wrong with her? Other than being so totally full of herself no one can stand her more than five minutes at a time?"

That actually got a bit of a laugh out of the professor. "She... it's a long story, Taylee."

"Oh - one of those girls getting a little too close for comfort?"

"It was far more comfortable than you'd think," he muttered, found himself blushing, and turned back to pick up the cattle prod. He thought about using it on himself. "She ... Came here to Carramba for one reason, and that was to breed."

"To ... breed? What, with you?"

"And why not with me?" Crazy Doc stood up tall, huffy, that way he would when his honor or whatever was being insulted.

"Because you're like three hundred years old and live with some gay archangel?" Taylee said.

Sanger's huff turned to pure surprise and awkward amazement. "You know about that?"

"I know enough."

"He's not gay," Sanger said, kind of disappointed.

"Then why do you live with him?"

"I'm not gay either!" He laughed, "and it was a purely platonic relationship until he went to war - when I had to bring him back it got a little ... personal."

"You're totally dodging my question," Taylee said.

"... Yes, I am." Sanger sat on the desk, and Taylee leaned on the work bench nearest. "When she got here it was kind of a surprise, because she was really coming on like a fucking banshee. Literally."

"She's all over everyone's boyfriends," Taylee said.

"She can't help it, actually," Sanger said. "Her genetics are like that. So are mine, apparently, and that is the problem. I don't know why she's still at the school - unless it's another doppleganger universe and this one hasn't gone and done what I know she did."

"Which was...." Taylee prodded.

"She and I have a son, named Simon, who lives on Zekira." He said. "You'd think that would be the end of it, except that there is more to it. She is a genrehopper, do you know what they are?"

"I've met Aern and Ruben, yeah," Taylee said. "She leaps from one universe to the next. So she came here looking for a booty call, and you answered the phone?"

"Essentially, yes. It took some convincing and I ... wish that I hadn't made the mistake of allowing her to leave, once she'd concieved."

"But why? I mean, she's here, why not ask her? Why not let Daverin do her paper on Keenae?"

"Because she owns Simon, Taylee. She is his Lady - he's her slave. That's how it works there. He's come here a couple times, looking for a way to escape."

"Wait - wait," Taylee said. "Back up. She's only like seventeen, and you said this was when?"

"I didn't say. Technically it was three years ago. And no, she is not seventeen. She - at least the one I met up close and personal - is closer to forty. Zekirans age differently and she could pass for a teenager anyway. She left shortly after, and then came back to announce him, a few days later. And about three weeks in, Simon came on his own, looking to be ... I don't know, about twelve? They travel in time as well as space, Taylee. It's a messy power they have. I went to Zekira with him, tried to get her to free him, but she wouldn't hear it, and later on I guess they both bonded to dragons, and off he went. He's been on the run ever since, and I... know the feeling. I just don't want to be reminded of that mistake."

"Then punish her for it," Taylee said, sliding from the work bench and reaching up to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Or let me do it. Me and Red and Black would do it for free."

"How about I think on it for a while," Sanger said, smiling honestly. It was a load off his chest telling someone about that problem with Keenae, and even though Daverin was enfatuated with him in this world, she just didn't understand his feelings. He was still a professor, still responsible for bringing a Slave into the world of Zekira, and ashamed to admit that he could do nothing at all to free his own son from the same slavery that had plagued him when he was still on his home dimension.

Did she know that about him too? She seemed to know a lot, this green headed kid. She left and Sanger continued to clean up, wondering who would bag the best subject before the deadline.

***

It turned out to be an unexpected student, from the fourth period class. He brought in one of the CCTV students, a young woman who fancied herself the next news anchor for the local station. When the near-human boy was done asking her the ten questions everyone was absolutely certain she would be the best reporter ever. She was challenging, she was Rue after all...

By Friday, though, Taylee had brought in her choice of a cat-boy that she'd suspected of stealing books from the store a while back. He confessed to that crime, and half a dozen others, before she got to her sixth question. With a triumphant grin, Taylee looked back at the Doc who waved her out of the room and let the poor siamese-morph go home for the break.

But it was also by Friday that Hollis and the other dragoneers had contacted him about the Ten and their potential for dragon riding. It got him thinking. If Taylee and the other girls - sorry, "grrlz" - could go and get their own dragon then dammit, so could he.

He was tired of stealing Sixth away from Kalkin, it wasn't fair on the genetic engineer, now was it? It would be nice to have his own close bond resting in the artificial dragon caverns just next to the campus rock wall. Yes.

Doc Sanger watched as the group of dragons took the girls away. One by one they blipped back again, to prepare the caverns and do their normal day to day things, until the girls were bonded with hatchlings to their name. He pulled H'lis aside and leaned against the retaining wall that framed the field.

"Where should I go?" Doc Sanger said, and H'lis looked at him with a little concern.

"Go? You're leaving?"

"No - no," Sanger shook his head and laughed, "I mean to bond a dragon. Sixth is great, but ... I think it's about time for my own. With his own name, and all, right?"

"You're telling me," H'lis said, "I think Kalkin will agree. Why not get him to take you?"

"Because I want it to be more of a surprise," Sanger admitted. "You know we went off and about looking for others of me, right?" H'lis nodded, and the Doc went on. "Well it'd be much easier if I didn't have to share the ride. I don't have to explain that to you," he drew his long fingers through his dark hair, "I just guess I need to convince myself that it's time."

"It's been time, Sanger," H'lis said, "I'll hook you up. We'll take you to Ryslen."

That surprised the older man. "Really? They'd take me?"

"They take a lot of people worse than you," H'lis said. "And there are usually a ton of eggs. Get packed."

"What, you're not going to officially Search me?" Sanger said. He was looking at the big bronze dragon H'lis rode, when he said it, but it was a moment of pure silliness when H'lis began patting the dark skinned man down.

"You're clean, I've searched you." H'lis said with a big grin.

***

(sanger-crazydoc2)

Ryslen was a pleasant place - filled to the brim with dragons and candidates both. The Doc made a point of keeping himself busy and away from the 'kids' or the younger candidates. There were a lot of people who wouldn't feel comfortable with someone like him near younger units. Himself included.

Mostly because there was another version - one that the group of Sanger Hoppers hadn't found - at the sands too. He was accompanied by several others, a group of younger people including one girl who simply was the object of much unabashed staring on the Mad King's part.

With several clutches always present, Ryslen was a place where anyone - including himself in multiples - would happily find dragons. When the call went out for the candidates, Novos as Baeris had explained to him a while back, Crazy Doc and all the others wove or ran or meandered down to the red cavern.

It was raining, a good fresh storm. The last couple days were wet and sticky, not in the good way. Everyone felt refreshed.

It was ironic as well, because the parents of this clutch had beautiful lightning markings, appropriately their offspring seemed to be either cloudy or bolted, in their skin. Several eggs hatched, and though he'd seen hatchings before, the Crazy Doc really enjoyed watching these bond. Even up to the big bronze that strode up to the Mad King, how appropriate - he sought out the sapphire eyes of the taller (than him? wow) man but shortly the Doc felt a little nudge at his elbow.

Hey. I'm here.

Smiling and turning to the source of the mental voice, which was a smooth surfer-style sounding one, Sanger said, "why hello there, Umpteenth."

That's my name don't wear it out. I'd like some food, and then you need to expain to me why my brother has bonded someone just like you only not you.

"I'm sure that it'll make sense later, Umpteenth, it does to me."

Satisfied with that, the little blue waddled away to find the food.

**

"I had no idea they grew so fast," Crazy Doc said, smiling. The smaller blue and the large bronze lightning-winged dragons belonging to the Sangers who attended the hatching were both ready to learn to fly. Since Crazy Doc had been flying for years with Sixth and Kalkin, he had no trouble teaching the small (but bigger than Sixth already) blue how to adjust to his weight on his shoulders, and how to bank and turn without tossing his rider onto the ground.

It was when one night, as the Carramba High school teacher and genrehopping immortal slept, that Umpteenth took a dream to task. His rider had some odd dreams, the dragon had known that since their first night together. But it seemed as though Van never remembered them at all. Or at least, he stuck them back in the depths of his mind where they'd be forgotten soon.

This dream however was so vivid, something clicked in the blue's mind. It was his home, Carramba High. The man who shared the Doc's apartment, a tall blond and handsome one, named Gabriel, featured prominently. I would like to meet him, the fledgling dragon thought to himself, while peeking in on the Doc's mind. It wasn't hard. This one's mind was wide open and strong. The impression the dragon got was that Kalkin and Sixth shared an odd bond because mental contact hurt him, and others of the Sanger bent were of varying degrees of this. His own Crazy Doc was just fine. Maybe even better now, because in times past, he would have winced when another person's dragon addressed him. Now that he was bonded, the Sanger's mind was protected somehow - quite unlike Kalkin.

But back to the night, when Doc Sanger slept along with everyone else. Soundly, in their semi-private den. Mad King Van wasn't in this one, fortunately. That would only confuse the dragons. Another weyrling pair was slumbering in the area on the other side of a privacy screen. When Umpteenth stirred and crept somehow silently around that, to his rider, he knew just what he would do.

When he reached for the Doc's shoulders, to drag him from his bed, he suddenly realized something though. Humans liked clothing. And the Doc had enough to take with him, even though he preferred being naked. A private thought, Umpteenth realized. So he couldn't just up and take his rider away, could he? He'd have to pack, and then...

".... Um-teeth?" Doc Sanger muttered half in and half out of sleep. "Wha'r you doing?"

The blue looked sheepishly around and sensed that the other rider was still asleep. Privately and quietly, the dragon said, I am sorry, I wanted to go see your home now. You miss him, that man Gabriel.

With a start, Sanger sat up and blinked away his sleep. "... Yes, I do. But I've been apart from him longer than this before, and I'm sure we'll be parted again some day. It's all right."

You dream of him, a lot, the dragon told his rider, who adopted a kind of faint blush.

"I love him," Sanger admitted, "dearly. And you'll like him too. Maybe..." The blue eyes that were echoed in the brilliant shade of his dragon glimmered with a nasty thought. "Maybe he should get himself a dragon. An angel riding a dragon isn't unheard of."

There are plenty at other places, I have heard. Angels at the Flurry. The dragon nodded. So will we meet him here?

"I never said we'd bring him here right now-" Sanger laughed, "go back to sleep, Umpteenth, and be patient. When we learn to teleport you'll be able to see him whenever you like. But I want to make it back safely."

You do not trust me?

"You know how I dream of Kalkin and the other me's?" He asked with a grin.

Yes, of course. And they have sometimes come here too. They come to Carramba.

"By accident," Sanger said. "They come there because they're on their way somewhere else and can't remember how to get there. So they reach the next best place."

Our home will not be second best! Umpteenth gave a quiet snort. I will do my best and you will get home every time. You are attached to that place.

"Good," Sanger said. "Sleep. We've got more flight training in the morning."

They both drifted off to sleep, shortly.

**

Umpteenth went through the air over Carramba High School at the head of a wedge of other dragons. His arrival prompted a bit of an aerial show, just the dragons. Their riders stood below in the courtyard answering question after question.

"No, not everyone can bond a dragon," said one. "It's a complicated process, and you need training," said another. Yet a third added, "I don't think most dragons could have a mathmatical construction as a rider, guys, what do you think?"

The Crazy Doc stood silently though, with unshielded eyes watching his brilliant dragon swoop and dodge in the air.

His dragon. HIS. Not a loaner from someone else in another dimension. Not a hitched ride.

The well of pride inside his chest was filled, and he couldn't contain it. Sanger's smile widened as the dragon came down for a precise landing in the courtyard. The Speakers Plaza was packed, but they made room for dragon after dragon.

Doc's room mate, the angel Gabriel or, as he liked to be called, Angelino Gabriello, approached. "So you're one of them now," he laughed. "Nice work. Great markings."

"I know," Doc said. "What about you? Any chance you'd be -"

"No way," Gabriello waved his hands. "If I fly it's under my own power, and I don't fly often. And what would the rest of the Host think if I were to be seen riding the very symbol of the devil?"

"You live with me," Crazy Doc Sanger announced with a sly grin, "you've already way broken that mold. If we find a place, you're going to stand, and that's that."

The angel, blond haired and fair skinned, shrugged. "If one came right up to me and insisted I wouldn't refuse, but I won't go seeking them out. I've got work to do, are you going to get back to class after this?"

"Maybe," Sanger said. "Maybe I'll just ditch. Half the class is here anyway, maybe I should make it an event."

As Gabriello walked away, Umpteenth pushed his way through the kids. I do like him. We need to train him to tell you how much he cares for you.

"You don't need to do that," Sanger said with a grin, as he watched his room mate and protector, "I know. And he knows."

"Knows what?" Asked one of the kids nearby, and Sanger distracted her by doing some 'dragonrider posturing'. That always worked.

**

"Where exactly did this come from?" the Doc asked, and Gabriel shrugged.

"Could be anywhere." He tilted his head, and said, "it's got a note, why not read it?"

Sanger picked up the box, which he'd found on the kitchen table in their apartment. He could feel something of uneven weight inside, and looked at the folded note which read 'happy birthday'. "It's not my birthday," he muttered. "Oh wait. Yes, it was. How long has this been sitting here?"

"Since before you passed out from the vodka kamikazis," Gabriel chuckled, trying to fill out a request form for one of his classes.

Sanger carefully opened the box, which was wrapped in a simple blue and gold design paper. There was an egg in it, which he held gently. "Flitter egg?" He said, and Gabe muttered something about needing to concentrate. So Sanger went to his dragon's dorm, across campus, to wait for it to hatch.

"Said it's from Fukeru Ukuure," Sanger explained to Umpteenth.

Oh those are nice. I like that place.

"How often have you been there?!" Sanger said, but he could hardly chide the dragon, after all he had daily classes to plan for and teach - what else was there for a group of restless dragons to do on campus all day?

The egg hatched into a dramatic blue and green flitter - oddly enough he had markings on his head, tail and shoulders looking like tattoos!

What will we call him? Asked Umpteenth.

"... Tats?" Sanger said, while feeding the flit a little scrap from the trough where some of the dragons ate. Tats was ready for more, and then ready for sleep. "Apparently," Sanger said, "it's good enough for him. You feel that?"

The flit was so satisfied and full that the dragon almost belched. Will you take him to class?

"Like I have a choice," Crazy Doc Sanger said, moving back up to the apartment to pester Gabe.

**

t was during winter break when Doc Sanger was approached by one of the 'Sanger Twins', Soren.

"Hey, Doc," the young darker-skinned version of Sanger said, "Look what I found."

He presented a small creature, grey with violet wings, who raised her head and blinked carefully. She turned to Soren and gave a chirp, which Doc Sanger interpreted as 'stop waking me up'.

"Interesting, but...Oh." He realized there would be one for him, coming from this, of course.

When he looked up, just past Soren's shoulder, there was a brightly purple creature with equally bright yellow wings heading right for him. He pulled up short of landing on Sanger's head, dropped down expertly in front of his sapphire eyes, and let off a cheerful whir of sounds.

"Well he says his name is Ochau and that he's a Wind Devi. I'm guessing that yours is different."

"Yup, Daruka's a Smoke. Gonna go play at the Caffetorium, want to come?"

Sanger paused for a moment, as Tats surveyed the newcomer. It was patently obvious that Ochau was far smarter than the blue-green flitter, though not communicative in the traditional way for dragons. Ochau twittered again, and both Sangers thought it sounded rather a lot like how Sixth would speak.

Gifted with language decoding, Doc Sanger knew that Ochau was announcing that he'd claimed this shoulder in the name of all Devi everywhere, watch out and woe to those who attempt to take it from him. To which Tats let out a chirrup and sat on Sanger's other shoulder. "So where do they come from?"

Soren grunted, "Chi'Golden Plain, it's a bit vacant but these guys are from there. Maybe they're trying to get their numbers back up. I got the impression from Daruka that she'd once been befriended by someone, but they vanished. You know how that goes."

Doc Sanger nodded solemnly and then wondered why there was a weight at the back of his head: it was Ochau dangling as though in a hammock of his rich black hair. "Oh now don't start that... I see enough of that with poor Kalkin and his flits..."

That got a response, chittering to the effect of 'I am not a flit! And you know it!'

Laughing, Doc Sanger said, "I know, I know, but ... do you have to do that?"

***

(sanger-carramba3 is the dragon's lineage page)