[[I'd like to take a moment here to personally thank DDSilverchrome, Vixen's player, for her permission to include her appearance in my story. Gauntlet's story wouldn't be complete at all without her in it.]]


Sasha eased into the booth across from Vix. He had to shove the seat back slightly to accommodate his size. The alien girl raised both eyebrows and chuckled as the big Russian shuffled into place.

"I thought you might not look as big sitting down. I was wrong."

Sasha smirked and gave a bit of a shrug, "It is the arms. Otherwise would simply be big rather than massive. So what is it you are working on here?"

"This," Vix slid the oblong contraption back to its previous position in front of her, "Is the power supply for the armor I'm wearing."

"I am not knowing much about such technology, but, does not power armor usually need to have, well, power, to be able to move?"

Vix nodded as she gathered up her tools, "Most of the time, yeah, but this armor isn't designed to augment me physically. The power unit is supposed to provide power to my force field, weapons, and on board medical equipment."

"Supposed to?" Sasha asked, quirking a brow inquisitively.

"Mmhmm," Vix frowned as she reopened the small panel in the power unit, "It works, but, I've got a problem with overheating. The power supply and the armor hold up fine but after about ten minutes it's so hot in the suit I feel like I'm going to pass out. Not much of a medic if I black out, yeah?"

"I noticed doctor's symbol on your shoulder there. So you are engineer as well as healer?" Sasha gave her an impressed nod, "Wish I was that smart. Are all your people so talented?"

Vixen waved a hand dismissively, "Nah, most of them are kinda narrow minded. Tend to specialize in one thing and not know much about anything else."

"Where you are from? What world, I mean."

"Zaonvar. Or rather, we used to be from there." Vix paused in her tinkering to give a sigh.

"Something... bad happened, no?"

"Zanovar's orbit decayed and... well..." Vix's expression became sad and wistful, "We managed to save most of the population. But now we're kinda stuck as a roving refugee fleet. That's why I'm here."

"So you are... diplomat also?" Sasha blinked.

Vix nodded, still focusing on her overheating power supply, "The fleet needs lots of food and materials to keep going. Part of what I do is negotiate supply runs."

"You wear many hats Vix." Sasha chuckled.

"No. Not really. Hat's never really suited me. They make my hair look all flat." Vix's expression was similarly flat.

Sasha and Vix sat there in silence for a moment. Sasha eventually chimed back in.

"That was figure of speech."

"Oh?" Vix looked up from her device, giving Sasha an embarrassed look, "Sorry about that. I'm good with languages but sometimes metaphors and colloquialisms go over my head."

"Ah. Is okay. English is not first language for me either."

Another moment passed. This time it was Vix who broke the silence.

"So. Is there flesh and blood under the metal there, or are those replacements?" Vix gestured towards Sasha's arms with a utensil that was somewhat but not entirely like a screwdriver.

Sasha cast a dissatisfied look at his arms before speaking, "They are all mechanical."

"Who made them? They don't look like any other cybernetics I've ever seen."

"Could not tell you," Sasha shrugged. His arms rattled a bit. "Was unusual circumstance."

"You didn't want your modifications? Wait... were you even hurt before hand?" Vix's eyes widened a bit.

"Nyet. I am guessing man who did this wanted healthy subject."

"He took your arms and put these on?" Vix's gaze wandered up the massive mechanical limbs.

"Dah." Sasha nodded.

Vix set down her tool and slid from her seat and took a couple of steps over to Sasha and peered at his left arm. She rested her hands on it and leaned in close, examining the gaps in his metallic casings. There was a mix of scientific curiosity and wide-eyed wonder mixed on the woman's face. Sasha froze in place, unused to the sudden close contact.

"It looks like... chains and pistons in there," Vix sounded surprised, "How strong are they?"

"Very. Can lift about one hundred tons over head before body begins to fail."

Vix looked up from Sasha's arm and shot him a shocked look, then eased away a bit. "That must mean the rest of you is reinforced too?

Sasha nodded, "Questionite reinforcement in spine, pelvis, legs, and feet."

Vix whistled through her teeth, "That's some rare and expensive stuff."

Sasha smirked back at her, "Dah. Is always good to know that your sadistic madman is, at least, not cheapskate."

Vix continued to look over the structure of Sasha's arms. When she reached his shoulders the offworlder girl gasped in shock as her examination reached the junction where man met metal. The stretched skin and patina of dried blood was mostly covered by the cyborg's vest and shirt but was certainly noticeable upon close inspection.

"Gods... what did they do to you...?"

Sasha frowned, fidgeted nervously and didnt answer the question. Vix gave him an apologetic look as she slid back into her seat and began to again hunch over the table, tinkering with her power unit. "How long were you unconscious for when he did all this?"

Sasha shook his head, "Was never unconscious."

Vix stopped short and rolled her eyes up at Sasha without moving. "What?"

"Anesthetic was apparently not in good doctor's budget."

The offworlder pursed her lips and processed that for several seconds. She shuddered, then made deliberate eye contact with the big Russian.

"I'm... so sorry." Her voice was barely a whisper.

Sasha smiled and glanced away, "It is alright..."

At that moment Sasha's smart phone beeped, he retrieved it from his pocket and glanced at the screen, a message from Pack Rat appeared on the display. The message read: 'TROUBLE. BIG TIME. CALL ME.'

Sasha's eyes widened a bit.

"I am... needing to get going."

"Oh?" Vix had a slightly concerned expression, "Is something wrong?"

"Dah. Not sure what," Sasha frowned as he worked himself out of the booth, "It was nice to finally meet you."

Vix canted her head to the side questioningly, "Finally?"

Sasha shuffled his feet. "I... er... Saw you couple weeks back at one of the smaller clubs downtown."

Vix tapped her unusually shaped hand tool against her chin for a moment, "Why didn't you say hello then?"

The mechanical man shrugged and avoided eye contact. "Friends tried to get me to but... you were with someone."

The lightly armored medic rolled her eyes upwards in thought for a moment, "Oh! James? He's just a co worker. But it's not like it would have been awful to introduce yourself in any case."

"Well, as they say, better late than never, dah?"

"Dah. See you round Sasha." Vix shot him a bright smile, exposing her impossibly perfect teeth for a moment.

"See you..." Sasha turned to leave, sparing a glance back at the alien beauty before speed walking back towards the elevator.

The massive Russian squinted as he stepped out of Club Caprice's front doors and into the bright afternoon sun. He retrieved his phone from and voice dialed Pack Rat.

"Yo! Big man!" Pack Rat's voice was broken by static.

"Message said there was big trouble. Where are you?"

"Still in Arizona. And yeah... major trouble. You know Grond right?"

"Not personally." Sasha frowned, his impatience evident in his tone.

"Well, he's been captured!"

"But... that is good thing, dah? Project Greenskin has been trying to capture him for years."

"That's the problem. It wasn't Greenskin's people that nabbed him."

"Who then?"

"No idea! I was leading these UNTIL guys in some training maneuvers when the alarm went out on the radios that Grond was sighted by satellite in an area outside his usual radioactive stomping grounds and they wanted some eyes on him from the ground. So we broke off training and moved to his last known location."

"So what happened?"

"Damnedest thing I've ever seen. Just as we got there we heard Grond roar, then there was this huge crashing sound. Man you haven't heard loud till you hear that monster let loose...

"Get to point Packy," Sasha urged as he walked slowly towards a covered seating area further inside the circle of Renaissance Center.

"Right. The big lunkhead was on the ground, and there was all these guys holding him down with cables stretched across him."

"That has been tried that before, right?

"Far as I know it never worked. But something was even weirder about the whole thing."

"What?"

"All those guys had arms that looked just like yours."

Sasha froze in place, standing in the middle of the sidewalk with a blank, dumbfounded expression.

"What?"

"Yeah. Different shade of metal, so my best guess is they aren't made of questionite like yours, but otherwise, same oversized shoulder casings, massive hands, the works."

The mechanical man remained still and silent for a long moment. A torrent of conflicting thoughts and emotions played across his features. He stood in place, oblivious to those parting to swerve around him as they went about their business.

"Sasha... Sasha?" Pack's static riddled voice crackled over the phone.

"I-I'm here Packy," Sasha stammered as he shook free of his trance, "What happened after?" Sasha managed to move over to the seating area and sit down on a bench.

"Some metal-plated chick came outta nowhere, bounced up onto Grond's head and I couldn't make out much of what happened there. Grond was thrashing around, threw up a huge cloud of dust. A minute or so later, he just stood up and took off back towards the radioactive wastes."

"I thought you said he was captured?"

"That's the thing. The metal chick was on his shoulder, riding along and pointing like some kinda co-pilot. I think he's being controlled."

"And metal girl, what did she look like?"

"Eh. I didn't a great look at her. She wasn't all that big, and a lot faster than your lookalikes. Covered in some kinda shiny, tight fitting, metal armor. Short blood red hair. That's about all I saw really.

"What about other people, the ones with... arms... like mine?"

"They took off behind Grond. Truckin' along kinda like you do at full sprint."

Sasha took a deep breath and tried to calm his nerves.

"Any idea where they went."

"Desert's a big place. And all the fallout around Burning Sand's scrambles most sensitive electronics. Makes it near impossible to get a fix, even by satellite."

"What are you doing now?"

"Me and the UNTIL squad are on our way back, going to report back to Project Greenskin's base first then hop a transport back to Millennium City for debriefing. I just wanted to let you know what happened first since... well... y'know."

"I get it. Thanks Packy."

"Listen, Sasha, you may want to keep your head down on this one man. I'll try to make it all crystal clear in my reports but when word get's around that there's a buncha rogue cyborgs out there packing the same hardware as you..."

"Am not going to run and hide, Pack."

"I mean just till we get this whole thing sorted out."

"No. If UNTIL or police want to talk to me they know where to find me."

"Dammit Sasha!"

"Thank you for head's up comrade, see you when you get home."

Sasha hung up the phone and silenced it before Pack Rat could protest further. Sasha sat on the bench for several minutes, processing what Pack Rat had relayed back to him. Could it be coincidence that the two 'accidents' that seemed to target him were followed by the appearance of cyborgs sporting similar augmentations to his? Not likely, he thought. That, and the thought that this could somehow implicate him further in the events of a couple of weeks ago was nearly as upsetting.

"I have tried very hard not to get involved in the affairs of heroes and villains..." he murmured to himself.

After collecting his thoughts for a moment more he stood up from the bench and began walking towards downtown. A resolute, grim expression was set on his features. Stepping off of the sidewalk and into the flow of traffic, his body responded to his intent with the speed of thought. He could feel the internal devices attached to his vitals whir into action, and the mechanism in his arms and legs ratchet into motion. The mechanical man grit his teeth again the discomfort and sped along the streets until he reached his destination, the Millennium City Police Department's 9th Precinct. The tall, austere structure felt far less welcoming than the flowing architecture of Renaissance Center. Sasha panted as he slowed to a stop, feeling his enhancements spin down from their more active state. He took a deep breath and stepped inside.