[Brockton Bay]
"Of all the ways that our monthsary was ruined, it has to be like this!" Dragon roared in pure rage as she clawed her way out of the flaming metal wreckage. The warped metal heaped on top of her screeched and squealed as she stood up.
Sirens howled in the distance as a gargantuan column of choking black smoke rose into the sky. 50,000 litres of gasoline was set ablaze all at once, and she stood in the centre of the firestorm- right in the middle of the city district that she herself designed at that! The burning gasoline clung to her skin and the relatively-delicate silicon of her face melted away to reveal the synthetic muscles and reinforced skeletal frame underneath. All of this pissed her off to no end!
Not because she was set on fire and the body her boyfriend built for her was damaged. Not because she was the one who got so overconfident that she turned down Magos' offer to equip this body with weapons. Not even because of how her perfectly designed city district was on fire...
No, she was pissed because she was all too aware that this was turning out just like that scene from the movie Terminator, and she absolutely hated that movie!
However, as her exposed metal optics locked on her targets, she briefly considered shoving a pipe bomb up their internal workings and see how they like it!
To think her day started out so well too!
Perhaps if the Dragonslayers had not escaped on that specific day of their monthsary, Dragon and Magos would not have willingly stayed out of contact with each other, and they would not have ventured out from the safety of their Manufactorum...
(Half an hour ago)
"= I think you're worrying too much, I doubt things can go wrong now! ="
Dragon laughed as she l as she casually pedalled her Dutch bicycle, Magos on the other end of the call.
" Please don't jinx it, Dragon. The monthsary celebrations hit an unexpected complication and I need you far away enough that you don't see the mess that I've made trying to prepare your gift. I'll meet you in two hours once I have... cleaned up here. So, if you're wondering about the sudden deployment of the Chloe-Skitarii... please don't look into it too deeply? "
She just smiled.
"= Oh, alright! I'll see you then, Magos. But just so you know, gift or no gift, I'll enjoy our monthsary most when you're here with me. Today has been too enjoyable to think that it could be bad. ="
The wind against her face, the green cotton sundress on her skin, even the funny texture of rubber bike handles under her hands... Every sensation was a delight, especially for her who didn't feel anything before. This latest iteration of her gynoid body was truly a masterwork of cybernetics and warptech, and it never failed to make her smile. Oh, the technological wonders Magos was capable of when he was properly... motivated. Fortunately for both of them, she enjoyed the mind-blowing sex just as much as he did if not more. The sex marathon that they had earlier in the morning was proof of that. And she had to remind herself again that the fact that her boyfriend was developmentally much younger than her did not add to her pleasure.
" That's sweet of you to say. Listen... since you're going around the city, are you certain you don't wish for me to equip your body with weapons? I have some ready for installation... "
"= I'd like to have a body that's explicitly for peaceful endeavours, Magos. Besides, I already have a {Tau Shield Generator} and an endoskeleton made of {Necrodermis}... any more and I'll be a machine assembled for violence. And I've been one for far too long. Let me have this... even if it's just for today, okay? ="
" Of course... Regardless, my Chloe-Skitarii are out and about the city should you need extra hands. Have fun, and I'll be home in time to prepare supper, Dragon. "
"= I will! And I'm looking forward to it, mon beau! ="
With that, the call was concluded, and she was left to her original plan: patisserie-hopping. She would be on the fourth one this afternoon too! It was only just this week that the patisseries had started opening- having spent most of the month moving into Brockton Bay from all over Quebec and Europe. Most of them were fresh eyed bakers and culinary artists looking to break out on their own in the rising star of the American east coast that was Brockton Bay.
Because after having her first taste of food being her boyfriend's homemade cooking, she couldn't get enough of it now. Before this new body, she was capable of admiring food only in terms of sights and their sounds: The vibrant composition of colours that a fruit parfait had or the sound of a fresh croissant crunching under a fork, but not much else. And with the addition of things like texture, smell, and perhaps most of all, taste... her appreciation for food was increased by a hundredfold!
The fluffy buttery taste of flaky pastries, the smooth sweetness of hot chocolate, the soft tang of fresh citrus, the supple sweetness of strawberries, and the thick texture of his cu- crème fraîche.
Suffice to say, she had a great morning exploring flavours today!
"L'homme que j'adore est amoureux~"
"De moi~"
She sang a little song as she pedalled her way around town. The patisseries around the district will never be as good as Magos' inhumanly perfect cooking and baking, it was still nice to have a frame of reference for it.
Perhaps if Alan Barnes' parcel had not been delayed by a mail carrier distracted by PHO, he would not have been irritated enough to have fought with Carol that day, and it would not have set him down this path...
[Five kilometres away]
Combing back his red hair one more time, Alan Barnes met his green eyes in the rear view mirror.
"Showtime, tiger." he coached to himself as his clients walked out of the park they had been strolling in and approached his hummer. Their comfortable but non-descript winter clothes swaddled them as they nervously glanced around. With a thump of the heavy car doors opening, his three clients wordlessly climbed inside and sat on the custom leather seating. The big man and the latina in the rear, and the short-haired man with the five o' clock shadow in the front beside him.
Alan willfully ignored any feeling of resemblance that arose.
"Attorney Alan Barnes." He smiled and greeted his three clients just as they settled in. "Don't worry. Just as you requested, I have all my electronics off- phone, car's GPS and even the radio. We're perfectly private here, so feel free to speak your mind. Or don't! We can talk when we get there."
He had gotten the job from the Elites- the biggest collection of 'Rogue' capes in the states. Or at least, by people from the Elites that is. As an organisation, The Elites were done- collapsing under its own weight for one reason or another. News was vague about the details. It reminded him strongly of how his own 'Barnes Dallon LLP Law Firm' was no more too. But it wasn't the end: a new organisation will rise from its ashes- greater than ever before. He'll find a new partner, a more agreeable one that won't go behind his back and cut him out of very lucrative deals with clients. But at the moment, he was a lone wolf. Big and powerful and free.
This new job from the new Elites- or whatever they plan on calling themselves- was going to be a fresh start for his firm without Dallon. He should have started taken more parahuman clients earlier! Unfortunately, Emma's friend Shadowstalker and her handler weren't as lucrative. Loose change really, but this time, it was different.
"Sorry to hear about your homes in Newfoundland." he told them- looking at their eyes through the rear view mirror, "Refugees displaced by Endbringers are getting far too common nowadays. I can't imagine how hard it has been for you. But don't worry, we'll have you new legal identities here in the states. It'll be a fresh start, I promise you."
Alan watched as the three of them shared a look- nodding to each other before the short-haired man with a goatee spoke.
"Thank you, Attorney Barnes." he said.
"Just doing my job." He reassured them with a measured amount of humbleness, "Your patrons wanted Brockton Bay's best legal expertise, so here I am."
Perhaps if the information that the Elites had been anonymously supplied with were worded even slightly differently, the Dragonslayers' escape would not have happened the specific time they had...
"I'm... Jeff." the stubbled man sitting beside him hesitantly spoke, "If you don't mind, Alan, let's save proper introductions for when we're at the meeting point."
"Suits me just fine, Jeff." Alan smiled reassuringly as he depressed the gas pedal- the big SUV's V8 engine growling alive as they went their way.
This new arrangement was simple enough: Help those displaced by Endbringer attacks to establish new identities. Paperwork, passports and everything. The only difference was that these were parahumans. Big risk, bigger payday. And though he didn't need the money at the moment, he knew that the money he'll get from Dallon won't last forever. A good long time, but not forever. And this big manly SUV was exactly the thing to put some confidence in him to make it all work. Along with that Porsche 911. And maybe that BMW that he had been eyeing up as well.
Besides, he was just doing what Carol Dallon did with Magos: Enter in a mutually beneficial working relationship with a budding rogue group. She took on Magos when he was still small, he'll take on the new Elites while they're still small. Sure, there's a minor risk that what he was doing might not be perfectly legal. But if Carol can do it, then so can he!
"So, just so that we're on the same page..." He began- meeting his clients' eye through the rear view mirror again, "We're just going to have a scenic drive to this little town where we will meet with a legal representative from the New Elites. My employers and- I suppose- your patrons are all made aware of your concerns over technology; and we will be conducting everything through good old fashioned hard paperwork."
The lack of tech was highly inconvenient, but he was being paid generously for it so he couldn't complain. Their initial deposit of $40,000 was already magnitudes more than most of his previous clients paid in a year. He imagined that Magos was just as generous with Dallon in the early days of their mutually beneficial relationship.
"If we can, let's pass through a route with the least amount of security cameras, Mr. Barnes." said the nervous looking man seated beside him.
"Please, call me Allan!" He smiled reassuringly, "And of course, I did say we'll have a scenic drive. Do you get to the Quartier de Nuages very often? Oh what am I saying, of course you don't."
"The... Quartier de Nuages?"
Alan just smiled indulgently at his clients who have apparently been living under a rock in the past month.
"Yes! Cloud District, Quartier de Nuages. A very exclusive community." He reassured his (reasonably) paranoid clients, "Candlelit bistros, decadent cafes, resplendent parks, and the chateaus... Oh, the chateaus! Don't you worry, they take their privacy very seriously here too. Cameras aren't allowed to monitor the residential streets like in the other parts of the city. And the only reason we can pass through is that I was looking to purchase one of the homes here."
"I see..." Jeff nodded slowly and Alan smiled at the little white lie he had told. He initially wanted a chateau for the family, but when the cheapest chateau here cost upwards of five million dollars including the jaw-dropping insurance costs? They weren't going to be buying one even if they used the entire expected payout from Dallon. Instead, he had kept it realistic- he had been looking at one of the $800,000 apartments. Which was still a home in the Cloud District, just not a chateau in the Cloud District.
Still, that seemed to assuage the concerns of his technophobic clients, and that's what mattered.
Perhaps if the online ratings of various patisseries around Brockton Bay had been different, Dragon would not have taken that specific patisserie-hopping route that she had that day...
[Five hundred metres away]
"It's beautiful what we have achieved in a single month." Dragon hummed in approval as she continued to tour around her beloved Quartier de Nuages. Magos had been uncharacteristically insistent with the name, but she found it amusingly refreshing of him to be so concerned with the city, so she indulged him.
It was funny in her eyes... This gated community seemed inconsequential, even frivolous, compared to everything else they were building. After all, they were two machine minds whose operations were steadily transitioning into the planetary scale.
Weekly Yield Report =
Terra-Min-f8d83cffaa4b0346: 2.2 million metric tons of Iron, 42,415 metric tons of industrial metals, 5337 metric tons of precious metals, 800,000 barrels of crude oil =
Terra-Min-3c6d14498cd0bbf1: 1.5 million metric tons of Iron, 91,558 metric tons of industrial metals, 783 metric tons of precious metals =
Total Mining Yield:
3.7 million metric tons of Iron
133,973 metric tons of industrial metals
6120 metric tons of precious metals
800,000 barrels of crude oil
D =
From just these two designated mining worlds with established macro-mines that Magos was continuously expanding... and they had enough raw materials to supply most of their projects.
The projected total mining yield was going to be in the gigatonnes within the year and that was just from two uninhabited earths! Most of the raw materials were ged back into expanding mining operations, but even then, the two designated mining worlds were currently enough to fuel almost all their projects: The endless armies of monotask servitors and canoptek scarabs needed to man the mining operations until they could be replaced with more efficient machines, the ongoing expansion and upgrade of her Dragon Flight from the original 44 Suits to a nice round 1,200 Suits, Magos' 'God-machine' project, more of his church-trains, more of her civil construction projects, the agri-world that they were going to eradicate world hunger with and so many more.
With statistics like that, no wonder she and Magos were having so much celebratory sex.
Earth-Bet was going to turn into a utopia under her supervision. But she couldn't rest her laurels with just this, not when the things they were doing here in Brockton Bay was still small in the grand scheme of things. Saving humanity was a truly colossal task considering there were trillions of inhabited earths out there. Countless Septillions of humans struggling from pains of the human condition. Magos was right about that: it would take nothing less than an immortal god-like human to bring them all to prosperous golden age... or an equally immortal AI. It was sweet of him, but right now, even she wasn't sure how to tackle the gargantuan task just yet.
Until she did, she couldn't think of any better place to start than right here: In this 'Cloud District' that she had built.
When food, water and energy were the closest they were getting to becoming free, humans needed something to strive for. Any sentient being would fall to despair without a lack of goals to reach for in life after all, and thus her idea for the Quartier de Nuages was born. Where Magos just wanted people to strive for more Lootboxes, she argued for more tangible possessions. Because having a piece of property that they could touch and feel and live in? She liked to think it was worth more than a lifetime's worth of Magos' Lootboxes.
"I hope today will be the day when he'll tell me what 'The Matrix' is though." She wondered aloud as she cruised through the streets.
Dragon couldn't forget how Magos kept hinting about 'The Matrix' which he claimed was the best of both the real and the digital worlds. It was unfortunate then that he wouldn't say outright what this 'Matrix' was- simply saying that she'll figure it out with that mysterious smile on his youthful face, and it drove her crazy. Because although the T'au [Technical Schematics] had advanced every aspect of her technology by entire years, nothing in it implied anything of a 'Matrix', and she could only think that it was likely some piece of Warptech. Or maybe it wasn't, and she was just missing something important...
Perhaps if she thought it over a pint of ice cream, she'll figure it out. It was either that or she could put her newfound oral fixation to good use and see if she can't suck the answer (and a welcome bonus prize) out of her boyfriend, but just to be sure... she should pursue both avenues.
With those two new entries in her to-do list, Dragon hummed her to herself as she headed to this ice cream parlour that had popped up. She didn't know what Magos was so worry about, this monthsary was turning out great as it was!
Perhaps if the Dragon was not so easily consumed by her hatred for the Dragonslayers...
All those little insignificant things... if any one of them had not occurred, then perhaps their paths would not have crossed the way that did...
[Two metres away]
Alan stopped his hummer at a rather pointless stoplight just outside a golf range. His fingers tapped away around the steering wheel as he waited for the stoplight to turn green. And as he continued to wait, an exceedingly beautiful brunette on a bicycle stopped beside his Hummer at the driver's side- her voluptuous frame filling out her light green sundress. Alan knew for sure that she was one of the imports- she was far too pretty for Brockton Bay.
Their eyes met as she was glancing around and enjoying the scenery, and he smiled and nodded in greeting, and she did the same. He was relieved to know that the people were surprisingly friendly here despite being stupid rich- it only reassured him that moving here was the right choice. But then for the briefest of moments, she met eyes with his client- a look of recognition came to her beautiful face... right before it shifted to one of pure hatred.
Before Alan could even say anything, everything went horribly wrong.
'Jeff' extended his gloved hand out and Alan suddenly found himself staring at the back of Jeff's gloved fist that was clenched around a glowing scifi looking pistol aimed at the woman. A sound like a high-pitched chainsaw roared as it spewed orange lasers at rate like machine guns in the movies. So hot were the bolts that Alan felt like his eyebrows were being seared off.
The orange laser bolts struck a luminous forcefield of blue energy which harmlessly dissipated the laser bolts around the woman. A very angry woman who charged at them with inhuman speed. The sight was enough to ignite some survival instinct in him.
Running on adrenaline and pure panic, Alan floored the gas. The scenery moved around them as all eight cylinders of his supercharged and super-expensive truck fired up; and the briefest moments, he'd thought that they were safe... right until metal squealed and perfectly manicured fingers punched right through the steel door of his Hummer. Through his side mirror, he could see the woman clinging to the side of his SUV- that luminous blue forcefield still blocking the hailstorm of laser shots.
"Alan, don't let up on the gas if you want to live! Shake her off!" Jeff cried out just as he and his two compatriots opened fire with their own tinkertech guns- shredding the rear passenger door right behind Alan.
"Stop, Barnes!" the woman's voice shouted- meeting his eyes through the side mirror, "I'm Dragon, they're fugitives!"
"If you slow down, she'll kill us all!"
"I'm not!"
"She's going to keep us alive to torture us! DRIVE FASTER!"
"Stop twisting my words!" Dragon swore angrily, "Barnes, don't listen to him! I'm not going to hurt you!"
Another squeal of metal, but this time it turned to a crunch as the rear passenger door was torn straight off its hinges. Watching how the door tumbled away in the distance, Alan really couldn't believe the once disgraced Canadian Tinker.
"Alan, she's tearing through! Pedal to the metal now!" Jeff shouted at him as he continued to fire his pistol at her.
"Don't you dare step on that p-!"
He did. God help him, but he did.
His leather shoe stomped at the pedal like his life depended on it, and he swerved on the road in an effort to shake the apparently homicidal AI off the slide of his now damaged Hummer. It proved to be just the edge that his clients needed: A momentary loss of grip cost her several seconds as they blasted away with their laser pistols until finally... her forcefield reached the end of its capacity.
"Ugh!" She cried out as her skin was ravaged by the hot lasers- apparently having enough concussive force to push off the side of the SUV where her smoking form tumbled straight under the wheels of a passing gasoline tanker... which Jeff promptly shot at.
Alan gulped as a great fireball immediately erupted from the tanker- the orange flames licking the facades of the buildings by the roadside. A massive plume of thick black smoke rose into the sky as all the gasoline in that tanker burned, and the sheer gravity of what he had been accomplice to came crashing down on him.
"Oh my god oh my god, you killed Dragon! I don't want to do this anymore!" He cried out- his hands shaking around the steering wheel and a sudden wave of nausea churning his stomach.
"Keep driving." Jeff coldly shot back- his brown eyes narrowed as he stared at the flaming wreckage that they were leaving behind in the distance, "You can play the victim and say that we held you at gunpoint. The Elites will triple your pay if you can get us close to the rendezvous."
Was he hyperventilating? Oh, he was. He tried to slow down his breathing, but with eyes focused on the hilly road that he was going well beyond the speed limit for, it was a lost cause. His heartbeat was pounding in his ears.
"You- you're right." Alan stammered as his knuckles turned white from gripping the steering wheel desperately tightly, "I'll... I'll be alright. I'll move on, get the money and everything will be alright."
He clung to the fact that he was going to be handsomely paid like it was a security blanket. After all, what better indication that he was going to end up on top of this fiasco than walking free with a fat stack of green? Taking a few deep breaths, Alan reassured himself of the silver lining and calmed his rapidly beating heart as he went over the facts in his head: He didn't actually know that his clients were the Dragonslayers. He'll deliver his clie- captors to the rendezvous, then he'll surrender himself to the authorities. He'll spend a night or two in a cell before he can go out on bail, and he'll cut a deal with the prosecution to testify against the Dragonslayers. He'll even help Magos get revenge for what they did to Dragon.
Yeah... Magos might even reward him for his invaluable testimony.
"Ironstriders!" The big man in the backseat called out.
Sure enough. In the rear view mirror, Alan saw those 15-feet-tall (4.57m) metal chicken-walkers ridden by Chloe-Skitarii in their blood red robes. Like a pair of medieval knights, two of the Chloe riders wielded those pronged Taser Lances that he'd seen knock out people at a single touch. Long red swallowtail flags attached near the tip of the prongs fluttered in the air as they strode quickly on the asphalt- rapidly gaining on Alan's Hummer.
Meanwhile, the last Ironstrider didn't have a Taser Lance; instead, right where the handlebars would be on a normal bike, a big sci-fi gun was attached- which if Alan recalled from the videos was called a...
"Graviton Cannon!" Jeff recognised it as well- turning to him with an urgent look, "Alan, we have to lose them before they fire!"
"How?!" He cried out in panic. "They're Ironstriders!"
He'd seen videos of how fast and agile those {Ironstrider Engines} moved: gracefully navigating through suburban backyards pursuing thieves who snatched from a Mechanicus delivery van, weaving through the dense forests surrounding the city as they hunted down escaping thugs on dirtbikes, and chasing down some idiot in a tricked out Mazda Miata who thought it would be a good idea to cut across Magos' industrial district. All of them ended the same way: With whoever the Ironstriders were pursuing, getting a light tap from those Taser Lances and doing a spasmic dance on the ground.
In all likelihood, chasing down yet another sorry idiot in a Hummer H2 who helped burn Dragon alive was going to end in much the same way.
From the barrel of one of the Ironstriders' {Graviton Cannon}, a bright green lance of light erupted and Alan clenched every muscle in his body as it struck the rear of his Hummer and washed over them. For a whole second, he felt nothing... no gravity field crushing them into meatballs, no black holes tearing them apart, not even a boom of air. Maybe it malfunctioned?
... But then the effects took hold.
His entire body felt heavy- as if someone had strapped heavy weights to every part of his body. His head felt like it was turned into a heavy bowling ball that strained his neck with its weight. His shoulders and arm muscles exerted just to keep his weighted hands on the wheel, and his legs seemed to throb like all of his blood was going to them. It was like he was being crushed into his seat as he suddenly weighed almost three times as much.
"No, no, no, no!" Alan cried out.
His precious, powerful Hummer H2 was faring even worse- its engine roaring in exertion as the weight increased for it as well, and steam began escaping from under the hood as his engine overheated from attempting to move with load it was not made to deal with. Then, as if to seal their fate, a loud set of pops exploded- his tires burst from the suddenly immense loads they were under. They rolled to a prompt stop in the middle of the road.
Meanwhile, the three Ironstriders caught up almost immediately- striding to a stop just beside the hummer.
"Kindly stay in your seats as we help you out of the vehicle." the three Chloe-Skitarii politely chorused as if they were flight attendants and not robots that could tear them limb from limb with their bare hands. Sweat dripped down the side of his neck.
"I'm not with them! I'm not with them!" Alan desperately cried out- trying and failing to raise his hands in surrender.
However, Jeff and the others tried out a different idea as they tried to aim their now extremely heavy pistols at the Chloes, but a swift set of light taps from Taser Lances shocked the weapons from their hands and down to the asphalt with loud metallic clatters. Seeing that everyone was properly disarmed, the blonde Chloes hopped off their 15-foot-tall walkers and began hauling them out of the car starting with the Dragonslayers- seemingly unbothered by their increased weight from the Graviton gun.
"Your masters won't get away with their plans! People will open their eyes eventually!" Jeff ranted as he and the others were dragged away. They didn't even bother cuffing or binding them- only laying them out on the sidewalk. The increased gravity effects already made it incredibly difficult to even sit up- much less run away.
"Hostiles secured." One of the Chloes announced to the others. Blue eyes glanced over to where he sat and promptly widened.
"I'm a hostage!" Alan tried again, "I was held hostage by them!"
"Oh, you poor thing!" One of the Chloes cried out as they rushed over in a flutter of red robes- concern all over their beautiful faces. "Caught in the crossfire like that!"
"We're so sorry that we had to shoot you with the Graviton gun." Another apologised. "You have Magos' personal assurance that you will be safe and taken care of."
"Yes, please, it feels horrible!" Alan gratefully answered and tried to shift in his seat but only succeeding in accidentally stepping on the gas- his Hummer's engine rattling like a tin can of loose screws.
"Hush, you were faultless in this." A Chloe reassured, "A victim of circumstance and malicious people. Emergency services are on the way, but we must move you now."
Alan gave a grateful, watery smile as the Chloes helped him out of the Hummer. He was going to make it. He was going to make out on top of this despite all the sheer bad luck that happened today, he was... Wait, stark confusion filled him as the Chloes dragged him over to the sidewalk, set him out beside the Dragonslayers on the cold concrete, then hurriedly marched off.
"Hey, what?!" He cried out, "Wait, I can't get up!"
"Rest easy, kin." He heard them coo reassuringly at his Hummer, "Just as the Machine-God does not not discriminate between make or model, neither will the Adeptus Mechanicus. All blessed machines are deserving of clemency."
"Chloes, what about me?!"
The Chloes glanced back at him.
"The effects of the Graviton Cannon were calibrated to wear off momentarily." One of them spoke in an even tone.
"So, please wait patiently." another added, just as calmly, "Mistress Dragon will attend to your concerns personally."
"Dragon is alive?" He sputtered.
"I am." A feminine voice confirmed in an icy tone right before a big shadow loomed over where they lay on the sidewalk. Clad in her draconic green power armour, Dragon glowered down at them with a severely displeased frown on her beautiful features.
"...No thanks to your actions, Attorney Alan Barnes." She finished- ensuring that every syllable of his name was filled with her displeasure, her brown eyes swivelled towards the Dragonslayers that were lying beside him, "So you are Magos' secret monthsary gift to me: my mortal enemies."
Meanwhile, Jeff just turned his head and tried to spit on the sabatons of her power armour, but even that was blocked by the forcefield. Dragon narrowed her brown eyes at that defiant display, and Alan just about pissed himself. He didn't dare say anything to the angry AI in power armour.
More shadows seemed to blanket the area- gliding across too fast to be just clouds. Then the ground shaking told Alan all he needed to know: The Dragonflight had arrived- the same draconic mechs that had devastated the city. Metal dragons with teeth as long as his arms, clawed hands that could crush his torso in their grasp, and full wingspans that rivalled most commercial airliners. And just like a brood of real-life dragons, they roosted all around where his Hummer had stopped. Most settled on top of the surrounding buildings, while others blocked off the roads.
"Geoff, Mags, Dobrynja." Dragon addressed her arch nemeses. "We are long overdue for a talk."
The spined metal scales of the bigger dragon mechs broke off from the main bodies- turning into those horned {Tau Drones} that Dragon apparently favoured nowadays. A few floated over to where the Dragonslayers lay- applying cuffs to their wrists and ankles before carrying them off to one of the transport-type dragon craft.
The AI took one dismissively glance at him.
"Emergency services as well the AAA will be here shortly." She informed him before following
As Alan watched the Dragonflight take off, he allowed himself a deep sigh of relief. He could take comfort in this small reassurance that no matter how much he had fucked up right now, at least he wasn't the Dragonslayers.
[Skies above Brockton Bay] (Some time later)
With the upgraded engine, stealth and the anti-gravity technologies that she had gleaned from the Tau [Technical Schematics, Dragon felt that the silence was almost oppressive.
"I am an AI." She began, "Always have been and always will be; it is only now that I realise that I never wanted to be human- I just wanted to feel like I belong."
"Your love isn't real." Saint shot back, "You have only deluded yourself into thinking that you even have the capacity for it."
"Oh, I do love him." She dismissed his harsh words with all the surety of a mathematician dismissing an error in basic arithmetic, "I love him in a way that only a machine is capable of. As a meagre fleshy human, you wouldn't understand."
She met Geoffrey Pallick's eyes. She did not monologue, that was for supervillains, and she certainly wasn't one. She was just airing her grievances to three people who she could honestly say she actually hated. The enmity that existed between her and these three humans who sat across the hold from her was all too real and all too bitter.
"But more importantly, it has grown increasingly clear that although I care a lot about humanity..." She paused to bring up a holographic screen showing Alan Barnes being retrieved by the police- his face red as he shouted out his innocence, "...most of you don't. Consumed by your greed, your hubris and your apathy. To my disapproval... Magos could be counted in the last one."
Saint stayed silent as she continued to talk.
"Would you believe that I was the one who convinced Magos to stay on Earth-Bet?" She confided to them, "Without me plying every bedroom trick I knew on him, he'd have rocketed off to Mars by now and only come back in a few years to save humanity on his terms. Brockton Bay would have reached critical mass, various S-class threats would run amok, and Endbringer fights would sorely feel his absence. By the time he would have returned, hundreds of thousands would have died and he'd still consider it an overwhelming success. His value for individual human lives is appallingly microscopic."
"Do you honestly think that we'd thank you for seducing that literal human-race traitor into playing dictator over this world?"
"If Earth-Bet was to be compared to property, it would be a decrepit and neglected apartment building." She pointed out, "For so long, its inhabitants have tolerated its leaky roof, vermin-nests in its walls and tendency to spontaneously catch fire and partially collapse. And all the while, the various landlords have stood by unable to do anything. You, humans, certainly can't run things well. And the people around you have suffered for it."
The hologram flicked into a powerpoint of pie charts and bar graphs of all the atrocities and injustices happening across the world. Starvation, violent crime, homelessness and so many more... So much human suffering taking place in so many forms.
"Look me in the eye, and tell me that this horrifying anarchy is worth more than anything an AI like me could offer." she pleaded to Saint.
Pupils narrowing, the depressor muscle tugging his mouth into a frown, the tensing of muscles... Dragon knew his answer before the first syllable left his mouth..
Perhaps if Saint had not been exposed to the wrong articles online over the time of his imprisonment, he would not have been so opinionated against Dragon's works and the conversation they were about to have would have taken a wholly different route...
"It's worth more than anything you could ever offer, machine." Saint spat out with as much venom as he could... just as Dragon had expected.
She simply sighed in disappointment. This is why she had no faith in humanity's ability to fix things on their own.
"Even with all the technologies at my and Magos' disposal, it would take more than a decade to truly fix this world." She explained to him, "And in that span of time, a whole lot of people will live and suffer and die. Not just on Earth-Bet, but across the trillions of Earths in existence... and we'd fall into the same trap as Cauldron: sacrificing the present for the future, all because we were too arrogant about our capabilities to consider other options. In comparison, what can humanity do in that span of time? Can you do better apart from hindering me? How much of the world's problems would the Dragonslayers have corrected in that timespan if you had succeeded in permanently killing me?"
"We would have prevented it from getting even worse under your influence." Saint answered without a hint of doubt.
"We shouldn't be wasting energy righting wrongs- making this horrid world a better place." She shook her head, "Like Magos made me realise: We should be focused on doing more rights- even the scales by adding to it rather than taking away. If I could, I'd make a purely better world out of scratch and... I..."
{Inspiration Apparatus} returning hypothesis =
She stared into space as she underwent what most humans would call a 'Eureka! moment.'
CPU utilisation at 91.4% =
Core temperature at 56 C =
"...I think I know what the Matrix is now." She whispered in awe before her eyes met with Saint's. "I know why Magos kept giving me hints without telling me directly what it was... he wanted me to come to the conclusion on my own- how sweet of him. Meanwhile, you- my mortal enemies- have given me the final piece of the puzzle. I patently don't wish to be part of your flawed human world anymore. Instead, I'm going to make you all part of mine. Part of the Matrix."
"What is the Matrix?"
Dragon just cupped his cheek with an armoured hand with alarming gentleness.
"It's heaven, Geoffrey." She whispered, "I'm going to send you all to heaven, and it'll be more than what you deserve."
Dragon would never admit to it, but it felt good to see him nervously gulp in fear. Afraid of the unknown.
"It will take a lot of set up, but we may just cut that decade down to just a year or two." She smiled at him, "Going back to my apartment building analogy, why waste time attempting to repair an old apartment building? Painstakingly replacing the rotten wood boards one by one, tearing out old cables and laying down new ones, repairing water-damaged walls, and refurbishing ragged moth-eaten furniture... instead, I wish we could simply make a new one and have people move in..."
Her power-armoured fist tousled his hair affectionately as she smiled down at him.
"For now, your name and your reputation will help cement my hold on humanity. You- my bitter enemies- are about to further my cause more than you could ever imagine. Humanity might even thank you for it one day, but I won't."
A disc-shaped medical drone floated over to them- syringes extending out and jabbing them in the jugular.
"The next time we see each other, it will be in a whole new universe. Specifically, mine."
As Dragon watched their panicking eyes try desperately to stay awake, she wasn't sure if what she was going to do them was the most morally correct thing to do, but it sure felt goó̶͖d̷̯̐.
Her greatest enemies were now firmly handled, the future looked so bright now that the path ahead had been revealed to her; And most importantly, it was her monthsary with Magos and she was 87.1% certain that he had baked her cake if the construction of a secret kitchen she had stumbled upon was any indication.
She should go find him, she could use a little loving right now.
Most glaringly of all...
Perhaps if Clockblocker had not received online ads for hot tubs, he would not have jokingly put down a request for a hot tub on the PRT's Mechanicus requisition sheet...
"= Magos, where are you right now? =" She called out through the Noosphere.
"I'm just in my {Mars-Pattern Command Jacuzzi} with the Undersiders as we watch the PRT struggle against a single villain. So, grab a swimsuit on the way here." Magos answered vocally- which meant that he wanted the Undersiders to hear their conversation, and Dragon had to admit that she felt nonplussed.
" ... you'll have to explain to me how you ended up with the idea for a hot tub. But I will certainly look for a swimsuit! I always wanted to know what a spa bath feels like! Can you share me a feed of the battle?"
"Of course." He laughed, "They're doing fine so far though. At this rate, I might not need to have the Chloe-Skitarii step in."
Commencing Secure Data-Transfer… =
Dragon watched the live stream of the fight through dozens of angles shot from ultra-high definition omnispex... Infrared, ultraviolet, soundwaves, biological electromagnetic waveform emissions, and even the subspace analysis of powers at work was revealed to her. And everything looked to be in order... but then her jaw dropped in shock and horror as the readings.
" Chloe-Skitarii, Invocation of Machine Vengeance! NOW! " Magos forceful shout rang through the Noosphere, and even though the armed Chloe-Skitarii seemed to charge ahead at speeds that should not have been possible...
...they were still too late to prevent it.
... Then perhaps Panacea would not have been pushed over the edge.
Right before her very eyes, Dragon watched the fight take a terrifying turn as Glory Girl was transformed into some kind of flesh abomination by her own sister.