A/N: Chap 40 review responses are in my forums as normal. This isn't the longest chapter in the world, but did the Dragonslayers ever really have that much of a chance?
Chapter Forty-Two: Slaying the Dragon
"Surveillance detected Saint and an unnamed woman at Grouchy Mike's Cafe and Bistro, in Grouch, Idaho, three months ago," Defiant said.
He brought up a photo on the briefing room monitor of a small, single-story wood structure with a Dr. Seuss-inspired picture of a grouchy, mustachioed man on the sign announcing Grouchy Mike's. On the porch under the sign, Saint appeared to be a young man with a shaved head and a glaring tattoo of circuits in the shape of a cross on his face. He sat drinking coffee with an attractive, fit blonde woman. Not very subtle for someone needing to stay under the radar.
Then again, why would there be surveillance cameras in a small coffee shop in Idaho?
"His civilian name is Geoffrey Pellick," Defiant continued. "His companion is Margaret Summerall. Neither are parahuman. He's been given a Tinker 0 classification because he was enhanced by Teacher to learn Dragon's technology. But since he is not parahuman, the Vikare Law is not in effect."
Taylor glanced at Horizon; the older cape kept her lips pursed as the tinker continued his presentation in the briefing room of the PRT Headquarters building. Neither Director Foote nor Assistant Director Seneca were in the room—this was to be a joint Guild/ Rapid Reaction team operation only.
"How did you get surveillance in Idaho?" Horizon finally asked.
"A patron of the café thought Saint's tattoo was proof that the country was going to hell, and wrote about it extensively on social media," Defiant said. "And did so again yesterday. This time, I had a drone in place. He's occupied an abandoned Tinker Lab roughly an hour away in the mountains. The main entrance is located in a five-hundred-foot sheer basalt cliff. The road-access entrance would require heavy ordinance and a prolonged bombardment that we won't be able to risk."
The slide switched to drone footage of the cliff—a striking column of basalt that protruded out like the prow of a ship from the steep slope of a mountain that continued far above it.
"I didn't know they had mountains in Idaho," Campanile said.
"I didn't either," Taylor admitted.
"Don't they grow potatoes there?" Dinah asked. "I like French fries and potato chips."
Defiant cleared his throat. In the Force, she could feel his irritation. She could also feel Dinah's satisfaction. And Sarah's exultation. The former Tattletale had found a disciple, it appeared.
"I'm sure they do," Defiant said. "We know that the Dragonslayers have compromised Dragon's communication network so thoroughly that they can see and hear anything she accesses. We also believe they may have a remote means of killing Dragon instantly. It's imperative that we infiltrate and neutralize the targets as soon as possible."
He meant kill. Taylor studied the man intently. She realized quickly enough that he feared what would happen if Saint announced to the world that Dragon was an artificial intelligence. For Dragon, Defiant would violate his own morals. He would kill.
"Dinah?" Taylor asked.
"Eight-one point five-five-two," Dinah said.
"I'm afraid to ask," Lily muttered.
Sarah, though, understood. "There could be two questions—odds of Defiant murdering the Dragonslayers to protect Dragon, or odds of Quintessence infiltrating and taking them out solo."
"Over ninety percent killing them," Dinah said.
Defiant stood stiffly, like a robot himself.
Horizon, though, looked from Taylor to Dinah. "You think you can get in?"
Taylor nodded. "Yeah. Mujaji can fly me in over the water, then fall back with the rest of the team while I infiltrate. Without their suits, they're baseline humans. If they get to their suits, the game's over anyway and Dragon's dead. I don't think we'd even need a large team. Maybe you, Mujaji and Insight to detect any traps or failsafes."
"And myself," Defiant said.
"Only if I have your word that Saint and his colleagues will be taken alive," Horizon said. Taylor hadn't heard her speak so firmly before. She didn't sound like a mom to her children; she sounded like an officer speaking to soldiers under her command.
Strangely, Defiant responded in kind. "Very well."
~~Quintessence~~
~~Quintessence~~
On that Thursday, AD Seneca contacted the school to let them know that Taylor was going to be out on Wards business for the remainder of the week. Her missed assignments were gathered by a plain-clothes PRT agent.
Meanwhile, Taylor was assembling the proto-type armor that she planned to outfit Scapetti's people with for her own use. The armor-weave body suit clung tightly, but had enough give for her to still move without too much resistance. More importantly, it had the connections for the various thin plates of durasteel that hooked onto strategic points on her arms and legs.
The solid chest plate ended just under her breasts and then extended with a more flexible armor weave that hung below her waist and was cinched with her utility belt that held her sabers, a blaster pistol, a first aid kit (she couldn't replicate Bacta, unfortunately), and zip-ties.
Most importantly for this mission, though, were the repulsor coils around the belt, and the helmet that integrated everything and provided her audio and video feeds to the command station Sarah and Horizon would run in their PRT-donated tinker-tech VTOL.
Sarah walked down the stairs into her lab and stopped just inside as Taylor finished clipping on her weapons. "What?"
"Holy shit, you look hot."
Taylor frowned and stared. "What?"
"Full-on, bad-ass warrior woman hot," Sarah continued. "I'm almost afraid of letting Scapetti's boys see you like that." She grinned and sauntered toward Taylor. For this mission she was also in costume—the super-skin tight costume with the little skirt that kept everyone from seeing the definition of her privates through the tinker-tech fabric.
She put her hands on Taylor's shoulders, studying her. "Amazing," she finally said with a genuine smile. "Look at yourself, Taylor. There's a mirror upstairs. Just go…just go look, okay? Strider won't be here for a while anyway."
Doubtful, Taylor did as she was told. She could hear Scapetti and his team in the atrium of the house. She had no doubt the other men of Scapetti's team were there as well. She didn't need to go that far to reach the first floor bathroom off the kitchen.
The image she saw in the mirror felt oddly confusing.
It wasn't a teenager that stared back at her. It was a woman—a powerful, confident woman with intelligent, experienced pure-black eyes. The costume fit snugly enough against her slim frame that it actually gave her a more feminine shape than her normal clothes. The belt with its holster and clips made her hips look wider than they were, while the chest plate added the illusion of definition. She wasn't really flat, not like Yuki, but she'd never by top heavy. But in the armor, it didn't matter.
Why does armor make me look more like a woman?
She put on her helmet; as soon as the collar sealed with the armorweave bodysuit the systems started up, giving her a HUD read-out of system statuses and communications channels. It also provided a wide field of visibility in any spectrum she needed. With the black, narrow and sleek helmet, she looked dangerous.
She took it back off, but for a brief, confusing moment her mind played a trick on her. It wasn't Taylor Hebert she saw in the mirror. Rather, it was a thin woman with impossibly large, glimmering blue eyes with bone-white skin and a ponytail of pure white-hair growing from the back of an otherwise shaved head. The image only lasted a second; she blinked and it was Taylor Hebert looking back.
"Huh."
With her helmet in her arms, she walked out into the training atrium of her house.
Jan Stanitz was the first to see her and whistled. She actually wolf-whistled at Taylor. That pulled the attention of the rest of the ten-person squad.
"That's a helluva a load-out there, kid," Laura Davis said from where she stood beside Scapetti.
The red-head, Rad Callister, stared with an admiring grin. The others at least pretended to be adults.
"Glad you like it, yours is next," she said, trying her best to sound like a professional. "They're tinker-tech materials. The bodysuit's a metallic fiber weave that should be able to stop anything short of a heavy sniper round. The armor plates can handle those even better. It's less effective with energy weapons, but you shouldn't be up against too many of those. Integrated repulsor coils provide anti-grav for high-altitude jumps. There's a modular jetpack too, but I haven't finished the noise bafflers, so it wouldn't work here. Integrated all-environment helmet with full tactical HUD and communications. You can even slave your weapons sights into a targeting reticle, like a video game."
"Will you marry me?" Callister said.
He was only joking; she could feel it in the Force. But there was also an underlying thread of sudden attraction that brought a bright blush to her cheeks. The old Taylor would have slinked off in embarrassment.
Though it took an effort of will, she met his gaze and forced a smile. "I could never marry a man named Rad. Sorry."
"Ah, damn it!" he said with faux heartbreak. "Curse my parents for giving me such an awesome name!"
Horizon stepped in through the main front entrance of the house in full costume. Only, like Taylor, she didn't bother with her flashy public costume. She wore a light PRT tactical vest over black body glove of the Protectorate standard tinker fabric. Taylor's newly completed manufacturing droid was already working on her armor, with all the others getting their own.
Even Campanile was going to get a set of Armorweave. Anything to get him out of that horrid-colored porn suit his mother helped him design. Of course, he and Triumph were in their dorms at PRT headquarters sleeping. Dinah was upstairs in Taylor's room, sound asleep, though Taylor could sense Lily was awake and reading.
Mujaji walked in behind Horizon, with Defiant a step behind. Unlike Horizon, she was wearing her costume. Rad grinned. "Ah, my savior! Mujaji, Quint there rejected me. Would you marry a man named Rad?"
Mujaji snorted. "Do I look like I'd wanna marry a ginger?"
"Yes," Rad said with a grin.
Jan snorted and hit the back of his head. Before it could devolve too far, Scapetti put on his game face. "Form up, shit-faces. We got a mission. Horizon, Quintessence, what's the word?"
"Word is 'go'," Horizon said. "Defiant?"
"Drones confirm the Dragonslayers are in residence for the night," the tinker said. "Flight time is an hour, we'll arrive near one hundred hours. Wheels up in ten. Quintessence, Strider is scheduled to arrive in thirty minutes. You and Mujaji will have thirty-minutes to infiltrate the facility and safe the kill-switch. If you are delayed for any reason, break radio silence at…"
"I have a quantum-locked channel to Insight," Taylor said. "My helmet is sound proofed. There's no danger of signal intercept. She'll have real-time telemetry and will coordinate our timing."
Sarah chose that moment to walk in, carrying a helmet identical to Taylor's. "Trust us, Defiant. This may be our first mission together, but this isn't our first rodeo."
"Why is it we have to be stuck with all the hot, underage capes?" Martin, one of Scapetti's younger men, muttered to the others.
Horizon patted the soldier's cheeks. "I appreciate the compliment, sweetie, but I'm older than you and married. Scapetti?"
"Right. Let's go, grunts. Time to stand around and let the hot young capes do all the work! MOVE!"
"Don't have too much fun without us," Sarah called over her shoulder as she followed behind Horizon and Defiant after the squad of heavily armed, armored PRT agents. When they were alone with half an hour to go, Taylor led Mujaji back to her lab.
"You said you didn't want a helmet, right?"
"Don't want to mess up the hair," Mujaji said. "Braids like these are works of art."
Taylor had to admit the braids were beautiful and intricate. "So, I came up with something else for you."
It was a new mask, but a thick one with a solid visor that reached back to integrated ear pieces and a band that actually fit along the nape of her neck, invisible under her braids. Mujaji looked skeptical at first, until she tried them on. Taylor slipped on her own helmet and immediately saw a new channel feed that she labelled Mujaji.
"Can you hear me?"
"Wow, like your whispering in my ears," she said. "And this is secure?"
"Yeah."
"So, you think that Ginger was cute?"
"Yeah. Not my type, but he's cute. You see him when he's working out in the weight room at PRT headquarters?"
Mujaji giggled. "Hell yeah. Too bad about that whole fraternization thing, I'd snatch him up in a minute."
Taylor stared. "But you said you hated gingers!"
"Oh, you sweet child! Never let 'em know you're interested. You gotta make 'em work for you, otherwise they take you for granted. Trust me, learned that the hard way. But if he's not your type, who'd you pick?"
"I don't know," Taylor admitted. "Not ready to jump into that bandwagon, yet. Too soon, I guess."
Mujaji removed her visor, and for a moment became LaDonna. "You know, I'm not gonna judge if you'd prefer Davis or Jan than Callister or Hollis. I don't care who you love, you know?"
Her helmet came off with a hiss and she smiled at the older woman. "Yeah, I know. And I appreciate it. Yuki was…" She shrugged. "Anyway, got too much to worry about to jump into the lake again. Strider's gonna be here in a few minutes. Wanna get ready?"
~~Quintessence~~
~~Quintessence~~
"Yer not gonna throw up again, are you?" Strider demanded when he appeared soundlessly in front of them in the driveway behind her house.
"It'd gunk up my helmet," Taylor said dryly. In truth, she'd been meditating for the past few minutes to completely separate herself from the Force. She felt oddly numb, as if she'd cut off a limb, but she hoped it would help with the teleportation sickness.
"Right. Mujaji, gotta say, that's a right sexy outfit. A shame I'm ugly and older'n your dad, I'd show you the world."
He took their arms and whisked them to Idaho before they had a chance to say a word, and then disappeared not even a second later.
The Guild was going to pay the man $10,000 for a few seconds of work.
The cold broke her out of her thoughts. Beside her, through their open channel, she heard Mujaji curse. "Fuck, it's cold."
They stood in a foot of snow on a mountain top looking out over another mountain lit by moonlight and not much else. They saw a tiny clump of lights in the valley floor far away, but otherwise the mountains looked almost untouched by human hands.
The sheer beauty of it made Taylor freeze as she opened her mind back to the Force. Beside her, she could sense the second she too saw where they stood. Without a word, Mujaji rested a hand on Taylor's shoulder.
"I never knew places like this existed," Taylor whispered.
"Let's do this thing. We can come back later with some skis or something."
Taylor brought up her tactical display and GPS. A spot four miles away lit up on her HUD. She activated her repulsor coils with her vambrace before nodding to Mujaji.
The other girl gripped the back of Taylor's chestplate before lifting effortlessly into the air. While she could easily have carried Taylor at full weight, by making herself weightless Mujaji could drop her without issue in the event they were attacked.
They both flew just inches over the trees until they reached the narrow mountain stream that ran between the peaks. It was the most exhilarating experience of Taylor's life. Mujaji had full mastery over her flight power and approached speeds of a hundred miles an hour or more.
They flew within twenty feet of Grouchy Mike's Café and Bistro.
"Quintessence, what's your status?" Sarah asked over the locked channel.
"Coming up on target now," Taylor said. "Stand by. Mujaji, just drop me at the base of the mountain and then move to the peak opposite, stay in the trees if you can. If I call, bring the thunder."
"You know I will."
The repulsor coils created fields of null gravity. They did not impact airflow or any other aspect of the environment. Which meant when Mujaji let Taylor go at the base of the basalt up-thrust before continuing down the creek to get out of sight before climbing, Taylor drifted in open air under the slight breeze caused by the creek and the ravine it ran through.
She called upon the Force to bring her close enough to the rock to grab it, and then concentrated on not being important. She was nothing, just another piece of rock on the mountain.
With her body rendered weightless, Taylor was able to easily pull herself up the side of the basalt cliff. She dedicated most of her attention to the suggestion field around her, while her helmet used thermal imaging to tell her exactly where the surface switched from solid rock to a thin slide of rock glued to a steel lattice work. And above that, a ventilation shaft hidden behind a fake bush that looked like it had sprouted from a small ledge on the mountain.
With the Force as her ally, unscrewing the vent was easily done. And with her repulsor coils, what would have been a tight fit with terribly restricted movements instead became a near effortless slide. She could use just her fingers to pull herself through the shaft.
Naturally, there was a fan. Nor was it a small fan. She had to press her feet out against the walls of the shaft to keep the fan from blowing her back out. After a few minutes, the fan turned itself off.
Sighing with relief, Taylor again used the Force to quickly unscrew the fasteners of the filter that protected the interior of the lair from animals and who knew what else, and in so doing revealed a maintenance hatch in the floor.
In seconds, she was crawling down a steel rung ladder in an access tube until she reached what looked like flight bay. She'd never realized when she read about the Dragonslayer suits online that the suits were basically giant mecha. The smallest stood only a little larger than a man. However, the largest stood twenty feet tall and bristled with weapons of every description.
She felt just three presences in the Force, all across the bay. Pushing her suggestion field even harder around her, Taylor walked calmly through the bay toward what had to be the main part of the base.
Within she found storerooms filled with canned foods, batteries, toilet paper and even tampons. Instead of water, they had water filtration systems and whole casks filled with gasoline. And in what looked like a bedroom with the door cracked open, Taylor found Geoff Pelicki and Margaret Sumerall together on a mattress on the floor.
Their naked bodies were entangled in each other so thoroughly it was hard to see where one began and the other ended. They looked peaceful. Happy. She sank them both down so deep in sleep it would take an explosion to wake them. Leaving them, she continued further into the base.
The third man was in a control room filled with so many computer servers that it was noticeably hotter. He sat drinking what smelled like coffee while watching at least half a dozen monitors. Some showed what looked like a constantly stream of computer code, while other screens showed various settings. She didn't understand the lustful feelings from the man, though. Not until she got closer.
One of the screens had a high definition, full color view of a very naked Narwhal, without her horn or shimmering body of forcefields, drying her hair while talking to someone off camera.
Damn that woman has nice tits. The man's thoughts rang in her mind with such clarity he might as well have spoken aloud.
Then she realized that this man was using their access to Dragon's code to perv on other capes. Granted, it was a cape Taylor despised, but the principal of it disgusted her. The man didn't even have a chance to turn around before she had her saber out, lit and on its highest stun setting.
He made a satisfying "oomph" sound as he flew out of the chair. She hit him again to make sure he was down before securing his wrists and ankles. She then walked back to the room with the two naked love birds, stunned them both with her pistol, and then secured them up naked.
She then covered them in their blanket. Just because.
"Status?"
Sarah, of course, was watching through their secure channel.
"Facility secured. ETA?"
"We're still five minutes out."
"See you then. Mujaji, feel free to make a hole."
"Gotcha."
By the time the VTOL reached the base, Mujaji had ripped the entire bay door off, providing enough space of the sleek carrier to hover in on Tinker-tech hover jets into the spacious bay. Scapetti and his team rushed out in pairs, their carbines pointing everywhere at once, while Defiant, Horizon and Insight followed behind.
"Any trouble?" Horizon asked.
Taylor shook her head. "Just got a little more of an eyeful than I wanted. Someone tell Dragon so she can stop talking to Narwhal while she's naked. I don't think she'd appreciate Defiant seeing that."
Defiant looked like a deer caught in headlights for a moment. "Hm, yes, I…yes, I'll let her know immediately."
"Good job," Horizon said with an approving nod. "Let's go see what we have. Insight?"
"At once, mon capitaine!" Sarah said with a jaunty salute and a skip to her step. "I'm going to liberate the fuck out of these asshole's money! Yeah for being a good guy!"