Summary: Conrad Lefkon reacts to International Rescue's new weapon after it had been used against the Mysterons.

Notes: Where I realise that I've already touched on some of the idea's in this... but there are couple here that I haven't...

Hornets Nest

May 2099

Conrad Lefkon, mentally repressed the urge to laugh at the Mysteron that had been ride sharing his body for the last 30 years.

He knew something like this was going to happen eventually…

That the Mysterons were going to eventually make a miscalculation in their precious war of nerves, and it was going to bite them in the arse hard.

They should have known better than to kick the hornets net that was International Rescue, especially since they hadn't done anything directly to Mysterons, prior to their attack on the pilot of Thunderbird Shadow, at least.

And that was their second major mistake, the first one being when they Mysteronized Scarlet…

In the Mysteron's defence, they had no way of knowing that Kallen Tracy, like Paul, had been a potential Myst at the time of his Mysteronization, but the Mysterons had made two very dangerous new enemies with that single attack.

Captain Mahogany, was an asset that the commander of Spectrum would have given a kidney for, and that was while he was still a normal human, as a Myst, he was as valuable and just as dangerous as Scarlet was, with the added bonus of being majorly pissed off at being torn from his family, and not having the connection with Captain Black that the Mysterons loved rubbing into Scarlet's face.

And then there was International Rescue…

If Conrad had been the Mysteron commander, he would not have taken the stealthy approach with them, he would have located Tracy Island and hit them hard and fast before they had a chance to counter the attack, IR wasn't a military organisation after all, so they would have very little in offensive weapons.

But that didn't mean that they were completely defenceless, IR had access to a whole variety of Rescue equipment and the brain power to use it in many inventive ways.

From what Paul had told him about the Tracy's, as well as from what he had observed himself over the years, even a 'dumb' Tracy by their standards was a straight A student by normal ones…

Conrad knew from the time when he helped Paul rescue Scott Tracy from incarceration in Bereznik, way back before Spectrum even existed, that John Tracy was a terrifying person to deal with when crossed, and Conrad was pretty darn sure that John was someone who could run rings around Major Green and then some, if he wanted to.

Then there were the non Tracy's that worked for IR as well…

Conrad didn't know much about the man that designed IR's equipment, but if the guy could design aircraft that could repeatedly reach speeds of Mack 19 or more and survive to fly another day, the guy had some serious brain power.

Brain power that IR undoubtedly turned against the Mysterons the moment that they killed one of their own.

The Mysteron detectors were already a pain in the Mysteron's arses, it made detection in a crowd a lot easier than the DNA check, and also meant that going near anything Tracy related was next to impossible - especially if it was owned by the family.

But the targeted EMP's that Shadow used against them at the German GDF base caught the Mysteron's off guard.

Technically it shouldn't have, because the technology used was very similar to what was used to repel Thunderbird Shadow's Mysteronized pilot away from the craft.

But the Mysterons had thought it was part of Shadows normal anti personnel defences, not something that was meant to be a defence pacifically designed for them.

Turns out even though IR was neutral up to that point, they weren't stupid, they knew full and bloody well that the Mysterons could attack them at anytime, and had put some defences in place to protect themselves and the people they were trying to save.

But that neutrality was over, now IR was gunning for the Mysterons as much as Spectrum was…

But again they weren't stupid, they knew that they weren't a military unit, so instead of charging off to Mars hell bent on revenge, they threw their efforts into helping Spectrum counter them.

Hence the Mysteron detectors, and now this EMP weapon that attacked the Mysterons ability to remain in control of the people and things they replicate.

It wasn't a be all and end all weapon, mind, the Mysteron's bases as well as the ships that they built themselves, not replicated ones that they took over, had defences against such a thing happening, but it was open season on the replicants in the field, including Conrad himself, as they had no defences against such a weapon.

A weapon that wouldn't affect the Myst's in any way, shape or form, because, contrary to what the human's believed, they were not Mysterons, but the recreation of the race that created them, meaning if the humans actually managed to locate and destroy the true Mysteron base, they would survive to potentially rebuild what was left of their race, while the Mysterons would be completely destroyed because the they needed contact with their base to access their shared memories.

While it was possible for a Mysteron to survive in autistic mode for short periods of time, on the rare occasions they lost contact with their base, they also lost the ability to control their hosts during those periods, as Conrad had experienced on a couple of occasions, and if the disconnect continued the Mysteron would eventually lose power and die.

There was one exception to that rule and it was by no means perfect, as it meant completely downloading their memories into a replicant, and became the very thing they hated.

Mysterons that successfully did this, if the human was a potential Myst the transfer would fail, were instantly put on a hit list for execution, not only were they considered a threat to the Mysteron's security, they were also considered to be human sympathisers and traitors.

"Don't get too cocksure with the human's new weapon," the Mysteron snarled at Conrad. "It's only a minor setback for us."

"Then why are you so worried?" Conrad replied. "Afraid that Paul's going to use it against us?"

"If I die," the Mysteron hissed. "So do you."

"And if this came up thirty years ago," Conrad fired back. "I might have cared."

The Mysteron snarled at him, and Conrad understood why, Mysterons were a technology based race, and had no set life span as long as the tech supporting them held out, in normal circumstances the only way a Mysteron could die was if the tech failed or if their files were corrupted or deleted.

But because of Conrad's unique nature, of not quite being a Myst, there was no way for the Mysteron to safely 'uninstall' itself from him, meaning the Mysteron only had Conrad's Myst life span left to exist.

And funnily enough the Mysteron didn't want to die, "I have a question," Conrad asked. "If International Rescue presented such a threat to you, why didn't you kill them outright?"

"It was not that simple," the Mysteron growled. "Don't think for a second that we can't wipe the human's out little to no effort, because we can."

"Then why haven't you?" Conrad asked. "Why play these games?"

"Because the human's and mer's must destroy themselves," the Mysteron replied. "They must not evolve to the point that their reach goes beyond the solar system."

"But why would that be an issue?" Conrad replied. "Unless…"

"We are the superior race, human's should be nothing more than pets and playthings," the Mysteron snarled. "But there are rules when it comes to dealing with inferiors, breaking them could mean our destruction."

"What rules?" Conrad replied. "What are you talking about?"

"Superior races are not to impede or improve an inferior race's evolution," the Mysteron snarled. "The Myst's can not be allowed to reach their previous status."

Conrad would have blinked in confusion if he could, "What that go to do with not destroying International Rescue outright?" He asked.

"Because destroying that group of humans outright, would have made it obvious we were meddling with the human's evolution," the Mysteron snarled. "There are is more to the universe than this puny solar system, and inferior races are protected up to a certain point, by having the humans destroy themselves, with maybe a few pathetic Myst specimens to kept as pets and playthings, we eliminate the future threat they pose, and look like saints to the wider universe community."

Conrad would have blinked in shock, "This was all your intention wasn't it?" He accused. "You intended to have the humans attack you when we first made contact, so you could justify wiping us out in retaliation."

"Catching on now, human?" The Mysteron replied. "Took you long enough."

"And I played into your plans hook, line and sinker," Conrad snarled.

"And we are grateful for that," the Mysteron replied. "Your reward for your co-operation was meant to be a peaceful slumber, Scarlet was always a more poetic choice to be the agent of destruction, considering that he was the more peace loving one out of the two of you."

"You chose to use Paul," Conrad replied. "So you could torture him, because he didn't approve of me attacking you?"

"Of course, the fact that he was the son of one those filthy humans that first defiled our home was an added bonus," the Mysteron replied, dismissively. "We were not expecting him to be filthy Myst."

"Why do I get the feeling you've been gunning for IR for a while given this information," Conrad groaned. "If you hated Paul's father, you would also hated Jeff Tracy."

"Of course we did," the Mysteron replied. "Only International Rescue never gave us a clear cut reason to attack them, so we had to get inventive."

"Because that worked out so well for you," Conrad replied, sarcastically. "You're the aggressor when it comes to IR, everything they do against you now, can be technically justified - since you were the one's that brought them into the conflict."

"They are human," the Mysteron replied. "And the humans attacked us first."

"I attacked you first," Conrad fired back. "In a moment of panic, and considering what you have just revealed to me, something tells me that if this war of nerves became known to the universal community, you just hinted at, they would side with the humans."

The Mysteron growled at Conrad, but didn't disagree, "Believe what you want to believe human," it said. "Just because we cannot attack that organisation directly, doesn't mean we can't send proxies to do so."

Conrad mentality shuddered, the more he learned about the Mysterons the more he wanted the torture to end…