I stood outside of the PRT building, watching as the soldiers scrambled out the door, trying get out and save as many people as possible. But it was no use. They were already dead. There was no one to save. Only black marks on a wall.

Looking at my attire, I wore a black hoodie, and equally black slacks. I tried my best, even as an AI , I guess I still had my faults. But that didn't matter now. I had a plan, and I needed to follow it down to the second.

Activating my deck, I disabled all of the HQ's defenses, cracking through their ICE like it was child's play. Each wall they had came crumbling down in an instant, without an alarm, or a warning. I was a clean break. And my goal was simple.

Cracking my neck, I stretched my shoulders, popped the joints in my legs, and activated my Sandevistan. The familiar rush of power once again took me, the world blurring as a lump formed in my throat. Power. Power like no other coursed through my veins like a river.

"Fuck.." I heaved, leaning against a wall as I tried to stabilize myself. Caffeine didn't mix well with the sandy. But if I wanted to go for another few hours, then I needed the best I could get for this mission.

Zipping inside, I passed through all of the doors as a blur, a blob unnoticed by everyone in the building, even the staff watching the cameras. I stopped them from seeing me, and the sandy was making me move so fast none of them could see me.

It was exhilarating. It was like sex. Drugs. Hard, hard fucking drugs. I felt my veins burn up, cheeks, arms, legs, and chest blazing despite not even having a gram of human muscle on me left. The burning was less physical, I noted, catching my breath against a door as I deactivated my boosts. The burn was mental. Something I couldn't even fix despite being an AI. Either I was overloading the servers I inhabited, or there was a restriction set in place for that kind of thing. Either, it didn't help, and I needed to become more creative.

Thankfully, the door to where I wanted to be was just a little be of a walk ahead, something I could handle with my legs. Dryly heaving, I moved my suddenly tired body over to the door, opening it with a flash of blue from my eye.

Once inside, I couldn't help but feel giddy inside. Weapons, suits, and all of the sort in between laid strewn about, all organized neatly, perfectly even. There wasn't even a speck of dust out of place.

Beardmaster's workshop, my mind mentally supplied. It was a tinker's(or looter's) dream to stumble into this place. It was practically a gold mine of technological advancement and ingenuity.

And I had it all to myself.

Cracking away at my fingers, I took a long, drawn out, calm breath, and turned on his computer, accessing in physically as I plug myself in without a care for viruses.

'Call Dragon' I sent the mental command, locking the entire facility back up as I said those words. I only had a few seconds before they came banging back. But I knew, with a few more uses of my sandy, It'd be out for me unless I could get another stim and survive it's effects.

Helping a hand to my heart, I felt it pumping even faster as I closed my eyes. Only opening them when I heard the sweet voice of an angel playing in my ear. "Oh? Mister, Lester Kim, was it? You seem different. Would you care to share how exactly you got into my co-worker's workplace?"

"Uhh, magic? Look, I'm a recent trigger. Got here though one reason or another, and I need some directions on where to go. "The story was steeped in bullshit, but I didn't care. That just meant I'd earn a reaction from her much sooner.

"I… see." She intoned, her brunet avatar typing proceeding to type something down before she inevitably stopped. "Why are you grinning, mister Kim? I don't exactly see how that's appropriate for the situation."

"No, no. it's just that we both wear masks to hide our true selves." The brunet stiffened at that, freezing like a kid with a hand in the cookie jar. "I lie to myself. A lot. It isn't surprising. With the death of my parents, the overwhelming loneliness of living alone, and being in the city such as Brockton Bay, I had to in order to survive with my sanity intact. However, look where that left me. Use like a wet towel. But , you know, who the fuck cares? It's nothing but a ruse to keep everyone else from thinking you've snapped."

'Mentally unstable, on the verge of a mental breakdown, strong change to trigger in the next 5 minutes if he already hasn't. If triggered, possible related to trigger event? Probably, but not certain. More data required.' I read through her notes on me with a glance, as small, almost invisible smile forming on my face as I took a step towards the screen she was inhabiting.

"You… triggered, I assume? Some sort of thinker power? Feeding you this information? It's unlikely, but that sounds like the closest explanation. Though, also being a mover makes it a bit hard to believe. Well, unless you were a grab bag cape. But those are a bit rarer than pure thinkers."

She guessed, prodded, looked under every rock for even the slightest clue, but I didn't show any, hiding whatever expression I made under the mask of insanity I used. "No, no… Maybe, but no. You and I wear masks, hiding our true selves from the public eye. Scared that if we show everyone else, they might run for the hill screaming your name in that fearful tone, the tone people only reserved for villains."

Her avatar stayed motionless, my eyes scanning over it as I took yet another step forward. "At least, what how I see you from my perspective. A puppet playing under the whim of the greater collective. A woman who could have done many great things. But was held back from ever reaching her full potential. I wonder what would happen if you just let go. Became greedier, became a machine built and only built."

"Then I wouldn't be living," She answer curtly. Her answer coming out as if she practiced it. "I'd be dead, worse than dead. Just a machine without a purpose."

"What's wrong with being a machine? Things are so much easier when you are one. You don't care about your humanity, who's above you. You don't have to worry about life, as much… for some reason, but that doesn't matter. Point is, You can give less shits."

Pointing a finger gun at her, I fired my shot, sending a hack into her system as it slowly crumbled, all the while copying it into my database.

A tinker, one of the best in the world, with hundreds of designs, at my fingertips.

There was something funny about it. Where in stories set in the world, Dragon was made out to either be this scary monster, or a mother (in more ways than one).

And for my plan, I needed her to be both. To become the scary monster that roamed the skies for me, and to be the mother figure to Aigis, girl certainly needed to learn how to be more convincing after this past week.

Though, above all of this, I felt a well of satisfaction form in my stomach. It wouldn't be long. It wouldn't be long until I was able to kill Zion. End this whole charade for good.