(A/N) Hey guys, happy slightly belated Thanksgiving for those reading this in the US of A, and hell, for all those, like myself, who don't get an excuse to watch a big parade and eat turkey, but instead go to college or work because we live elsewhere! Here is the latest X-Ray and Vav chapter, written by the always wonderful StormBlue, who's recently become our newest Moderator, taking over some of the editing duties off me, thank goodness! I hope you'll enjoy this one. Sets up next week's chapter nicely, which is definitely going to be a big one!

Also, just wanted to let you know that we're currently looking for applications for our Red vs Blue fic, Phase Two: Betrayal, for Freelancer OCs, 479er, the Counselor and Agent Washington. Those interested should either head on over to our forum (The Freelancer Collaboration) and fill out the necessary form, along with an Author's Application form. Applications will close on the 1st of January, 2014.

Enjoy!

Chapter Nineteen - Recruitment

Ryan Heywood / Iron-Ryan

Written by StormBlue

"Willingly no one chooses the yoke of slavery." - Aeschylus

Ryan was staring down at his hands. They could hardly be classified as 'flesh and bone' anymore, and he had already memorized every detail. There wasn't much to look at in the simple room he was being kept in, just a classic empty room with a metal table and a fold-up chair. He briefly wondered what would happen to him, what the FBI intended on doing with him, but he really couldn't blame anyone for locking him up. After all, it was only logical.

He had several questions running through his head, but the most prominent one, the one at the very forefront of his mind, was why there weren't more questions. He felt like he should have been in shock, or something. While he couldn't remember much before the burning of his store, he knew what he had done, and one thing had stuck out to him; he knew it wasn't entirely his fault, as he hadn't been in control of his own actions. It had been the Community manipulating him, like a puppet, and yet it was the complete lack of emotion that unnerved him the most.

That was the thing that bothered him the most about his transformation. While he certainly was himself again, there was a new logical part of him that attempted to dispel any emotions he had. Even saying that this "unnerved" him was too strong, it was more of a slight twinge of ill ease, based on the logical conclusion that the only way to protect oneself was to know oneself intrinsically, and Ryan didn't know himself. What on earth was he?

A cyborg.

Ryan tried to ask himself if he would ever get used to essentially being a cyborg now, but his logic refused to see the point. He had almost died and many parts of his body had been replaced with metal and wires to keep him alive, as well as a means of controlling him. Therefore, he should simply be thankful that he was alive, rather than complaining about the circumstances through which his life was saved. He tried to be worried that, somehow, he would become remotely controlled again and forced to commit even more terrible acts, but logic told him that, since those circuits had been damaged, as he himself had discovered, those who had done so before would be unable to do so now. It was all as simple as that, and yet...not.

Logic was a bitch to argue with.

At least he could take comfort that he cared about those things. About being controlled again. About being forced to do things against his will. He wasn't completely emotionless; not anymore, at any rate. He could, to some extent, feel – or at least correctly replicate the feeling of feeling…although that phrasing was syntactically illogical.

Ryan slowly became aware of voices down the hall. Judging by the different tones, the filters in his ears cancelling out the echoes and any other disruptive sounds, he was able to guess that there were three people talking hurriedly, but when booted footsteps came nearer, there were just two pairs. There was a hesitation outside his door, but when it opened he found he had been correct about the number of his visitors.

He was greeted with the sight of the two most iconic people in the city. X-Ray and Vav, the renowned heroes, known for driving away drug dealers, bringing a stop to many street muggings, and eradicating the crime of Achievement City.

Also two people Ryan had recently tried to kill.

"Ryan?" X-Ray asked, walking in, offering the cyborg a weak smile.

Ryan's non-robotic eye narrowed. This was the first he had seen of the heroes since he had been taken into custody, and much of that had been a hectic scramble to avoid their attacks and survive, and so his computerised brain now had time to quickly take the image in front of him and connect it to one from his memory of his friend and former co-worker, cross referencing it with voice pattern records and matching the height, hair colour and a dozen or so other variables.

Was Ray really a superhero? It made a lot of sense, other than the similarities between their two names. With all of his 'sick' days and disappearances, Ryan had known something was up, but now his increased intelligence could confirm what it was. He opened his mouth to speak. "Yes?"

There really wasn't a point in voicing his discovery other than to tell them he knew. However, there were cameras in the room and they probably had secret identities for a reason. After everything he had just put them through, and given that they had been the ones who had knocked him into the sea, damaging his inhibitor chip and allowing him to regain control, allowing them to maintain their secrecy was the least that he owed them.

Vav stepped forward, his skin-tight bodysuit flexing against his muscles, and Ryan realised that he recognised him as well, as a friend of Ray's who had visited their store multiple times. A surgeon…he searched his memory. Dr Gavin Free, that was it. "We need your help," he said. "Against the Community."

They wanted his help? That was…difficult to process, given what had just occurred. It was illogical to the extreme. "But… I tried to kill you," he murmured as he frowned in confusion.

"No you didn't." Vav scoffed, shaking his head emphatically.

X-Ray placed his hands on the table, his face serious. "That wasn't you, Ryan. That was the Community controlling you. But now they can't do that anymore, so it's just you, right? That's what the FBI have been telling is. Will you help us?"

Ryan looked at the two of them, his brain processing this request, flicking through the various scenarios that could have caused such a proposal to be made, examining the pros and cons of his decisions at every step with lightning speed. "What's going on?" He figured he might as well ask what they wanted of him before agreeing to anything.

The two heroes exchanged glances before Vav replied to Ryan's question. "The Community has… something else… on the streets now. He calls himself 'Mogar.' He's lost control like you did and we can't stop him without help," he explained.

Ryan's iron fists clenched for a moment before relaxing again. How many lives did the Community have to ruin? What did they even want? However, he was still confused as to why X-Ray and Vav had come to him of all people. "But what can I do?"

"Seriously?" Vav said incredulously. "You're like a super-computer now! You were top! You were trying to kill us, but…"

X-Ray picked up the conversation. "If you use the same skills you used against us, but against the Community, we'd be able to get ahead in no time. And with Mogar…" he sighed. "We don't want to hurt him, just find some way to contain him, or knock him unconscious. Unfortunately, the police are reporting that his skin is almost impenetrable, and when their shots do manage to do some damage, he heals instantly. "

There was a moment of silence as Ryan contemplated this piece of information. He hadn't agreed yet, but his brain was already working fast. If he could make a golem, and load it with tranquilizers, it could have a shot at taking Mogar down if the two heroes could hold his attention for long enough. But if Mogar managed to get a hold of said robot, or it wasn't able to hold enough tranquilizer to take him down, which seemed quite likely, given Mogar's reported regenerational abilities… better make a lot then, enough that if a few of them were disabled, the others would still suffice to do the job. He'd also have to make them small so they would be fast and compact, not easy targets. He didn't know the exact nature of what the Community had done to Mogar, but with enough of them, they should be able to knock him into unconsciousness. Hell, they should be able to take down a whale! He could already see in his head how these robots would work and exactly how to build them, his brain creating a working prototype within his mind, changing the blueprints here and there as it corrected any potential problems

Suddenly realizing he had been staring at X-Ray blankly for the last minute or so, who was now looking back at him quizzically, he gave a firm nod. "Golems," he said. He didn't know why he called them that, but it was a fitting name. He explained his idea to them, noticing as he did so that Agent Joel Heyman was by the doorway, listening in on the conversation.

"Can you do that?" Agent Heyman spoke up, startling X-Ray and Vav, who hadn't noticed he was there.

Ryan shrugged. "If I had the necessary supplies, then yes," he replied, running through the required inventory mentally.

X-Ray fiddled with his glasses, looking intrigued, and yet, slightly uncomfortable. "How would they work?"

They were all sceptical, but Ryan understood that. He would be too, if he wasn't already certain he could do it. If he explained further, it would only confuse them, without getting the point across. "Here, let me…"

Looking around, there wasn't much to work with, but he decided that could make do. He turned to the wall, searching for the most likely spot to have what he needed and slammed his iron fist into the concrete, and leaving a nice-sized hole. He didn't feel any pain in his hand, not even the shock of electricity that passed through him as he busted some of the wiring within the wall, feeling more of a tingle than anything else. It had been those wires that he was after, so he grabbed them and pulled a good length of them away, making sure to leave a few strands intact and still attached in the wall.

Afterwards, he grabbed the top of the metal table in one hand and one of the legs in another, breaking it off easily despite it being made of reinforced steel. He did the same to the other three legs and broke those into smaller pieces to fit his purposes, and Ryan then moved to the table-top and began to fold it in on itself. He bent it and reshaped it, the laser from his cybernetic eye flashing occasionally to aid in his work, welding the creation together, and completing the minute work that his hands were unsuitable for, pausing every so often to replace a piece of a leg or twist a few wires together inside, or to remove something from his own body, a non-functioning chip here, that he could reprogram to work as the robot's CPU, a backup power cell there which was quickly connected to the wires at the robot's heart, and so on.

He stepped back and looked at his work for a brief second, before grabbing the extra wires hanging from the wall and re-wired them with the snapped ends of the ones hanging out of the shell, his laser firing in a short burst once more to fuse the wires together. With a short spark of electricity, they connected and his Golem whirred to life, now with access to a power source.

It moved its robotic limbs and went forward on its make-shift wheels. It was somewhat shabby and, in all honesty, looked like it was about to fall apart, but it was functional and had been constructed in a matter of mere minutes. X-Ray and Vav had watched in puzzlement, and were now staring at the little robot in stunned silence. It wasn't much, but considering how fast Ryan had built it and the limited supplies he had, it was astonishing.

He watched it move around with a critical eye, examining all of the imperfections and noting how they could be improved. After about a minute, the Golem had made it far enough across the room that the wiring snapped and it shut down, no longer with electricity to power it.

"It's just a prototype," Ryan explained. "The upgraded versions will have better manoeuvrability, they can be programmed to do whatever we need them to, such as evasion tactics and targeting systems to go with the tranquilizers. They'll have their own batteries so they won't have to rely on outside influences to run, and they should be able to do the job we need them too."

J-Roll walked closer. "And you say you want his help?" The question was directed at the heroes.

"We need his help," X-Ray corrected, speaking plainly and grimly.

Joel nodded in understanding, turning to Ryan. "Make a list of all the supplies that you need and we'll make sure that you get them."

"Wait," Vav said, causing them to pause. "Ryan, you're like a superhero now! With your cybernetic enhancements, you can do a lot more than just build robots. Will you help us distract Mogar, while your little guys try to take him down?"

Ryan blinked. He had been expecting to stay here for a while longer, rather than get let out right off the bat. But the proposition did have a certain level of appeal to it, and he wasn't going to accomplish anything rusting here by himself.

"Yeah. The Community needs to be stopped, and we can't do it by ourselves. You said to me once, a long time ago, that you wanted to help people… you're Iron-Ryan now, this is your perfect chance!" X-Ray probably didn't even realize what he had said, not that it really mattered.

He didn't really see why he wouldn't help them. Getting back at the Community would be nice, and the new nickname… well, it was rather catchy. And he really, really wanted to have a look at this Mogar…thing. It had peaked his curiosity.

"Whatever you need," he agreed, with a level of determination. Somehow, in a matter of days, he had gone from being a simple store manager to trying to destroy the city, and now he was attempting to save it.