" Beta'd by Blackberry Avar. I have computer expertise.

"The next day, somewhere in the Shadow lands. Another abandoned warehouse, actually, which the duo had re-purposed and turned into a temporary base.

""Hey Shadow!" The Assassin yelled over his shoulder.

"Yeah?"
""Come on over a second, I need to upgrade your gear."

""What kind of upgrades?" Asked Shadow as he walked over.

;""I'm gonna be doing an upgrade to your software real quick, but only after I've replaced some of your hardware."

""My targeting drive."

""Yep. And just about everything else too. And I might switch you over to analog for a couple days until I can write a hard counter for those pesky CIA."

"Shadow snorted, one of his favorite expressions even though he was a robot. "The Central Intelligence Agency is rather annoying, but I can still defeat them any day of the week."

""Pride comes before a fall.", Sleek said, then, "Open up, I'm going to need to see your electronics."/p
"Shadow went into a semi-shut down mode and retreated to his core memory drive, and his body slumped down slightly, though he could still hear what the Assassin was saying. While he was doing this, his 'head' split into four parts and some of his central parts became exposed./p

"Sleek fiddled with some screws and detached several copper pipes, pulled out a black, metallic box, then pressed a button. The case, for that was what it was, popped open with a hissing sound, revealing the motherboard, which was several layers deep.
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Mm. This doesn't look too good." The assassin pulled out several electronic parts which looked substantially blackened. "I don't know what you were doing to bust your motherboard up so much but this really doesn't look good. Looks like you blew some fuses."

;"He peeled off another layer. "And what did you do to your CPU? It looks like you've melted a pin! This is going to need a good fix. Pesky CIA indeed. They're getting better than I thought."

"He grabbed another part from Shadow's head and gave a smooth pull. Another case slid out and he popped that one open too, then threw away the circuit-board inside before replacing it with another, similar board and closing the case. This he put back into the dragon.

;""Sorry bud, but I'm going to have to switch you back to analog. It'll make you harder to hack.", Sleek said. "Now where did I leave that custom board?" He began to look through some of the hardware on one of the dinky shelves.

""Aha! Here it is." Sleek triumphantly pulled a red and black motherboard out of an unorganized stack of keyboards and components. "I don't even know why it was in there I really need to get all this stuff organized.
"He put it into the original case and, with much fiddling, plugged it back into Shadow, then tapped away on a display on his cybernetic arm.
"Shadow's head merged together again and his eyes flashed several times before settling into a solid amber-red.

""System restarted, powering up. Warning, motherboard semi-incompatible. Core upgrade required." Shadow announced unemotionally. "It always feels weird to have my head split into so many pieces." he said after a pause.

"Brrr."

""I can't get an upgrade right now, I've got some business to attend to." Sleek said before walking to the warehouse door and pressing the up button for the garage door. Once it started to open he jogged back to Shadow and hopped up onto the dragon's wings before settling on his dorsals./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Up up and away!" Sleek called out, and they took off, the warehouse doors closing behind them as they cleared the entrance.

"The journey to town was routine, so Sleek did not feel the need to use the boosters. Soon they approached the bar where they had been before.
""Drop me." said Sleek./p
""What the..? Oh. You crazy bastard."
;"Sleek only chuckled and engaged his wing-suit prematurely. They approached the jumping off point quickly and without being noticed. The assassin jumped off with an overly stylish back flip, spread his wings, and glided down without a sound until he landed just in front of the sliding doors, which opened for him just as he stood up and retracted his wing-suit. Nobody moved as he strode into the back room for another target.

Berk, the Present.

The investigators returned to the scene to see if they could find any more clues. One of them looked up.

""Hey guys! Its a camera."

""How the heck did no one notice that before?" Asked the man in charge.

""I don't know, but I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Somebody get that camera down and we'll see if we can get some footage of our unknown assailant."

"The BPD HQ, Debriefing Room.

"A group of SWAT members filed into the room. It had four faces. Astrid: group specialist and team beauty queen. Steve: Otherwise known as Snotlout. The team's brawn, he also was a bit of a meathead. Fishlegs: Nobody knew any other name for him, but he was an extremely intelligent technician and knew practically everything about everything. And finally Hiccup: Team sniper, also extremely intelligent.

""Good morning. Please take a seat." said the deputy head. His name: Stoick. "You all know the risks.", he said once they were all seated. "But you have volunteered in the face of potential injury and death. Remember, this mission is optional. Should you choose to go back now, I will not stop you. Do you wish to continue?"

"The SWAT members nodded as one.

""Pain, love it." Hiccup whispered under his breath.

""Who let him join? I didn't see him on the mission roster." said Snotlout.

""The last guy got cold feet and decided not to go. He stepped up because we needed another technician who could do the dirty work."
;""Okay."

;""Hush.", said Fishlegs. "He's about to start."

;""The mission is to infiltrate this area." An image showed up on the screen. "The government is working together with the BPD to keep tabs on the Shadow-lands. We need you four to infiltrate the outlaw systems and see who holds power there, if anyone actually does. You are also tasked with finding any underground facilities there. You will be hot dropped into the area and operate with only minimal radio contact except in case of an emergency. Any questions."

"They all shook their heads.

;""Extra information will be given to you in the study room. You will leave in four hours."

;"Sleek left the back room and took a seat at the bar. Once he had drunk more alcohol than he'd thought possible he left the Red Dragon and stumbled back to the warehouse, where Shadow caught up to him./p

""How'd it go Sleek?" He asked, not having noticed that the assassin was drunk.

""Just great. My next target is my father, that ugly S.O.B who left me here to die." he slurred, and promptly collapsed on the pavement