Dragonslayers

After Paige fainted, I returned the forcefield to it's regular mode and walked over to the dragon suit, using my particle beam to slice off it's limbs.

The dragon suit fell to the floor with a thud, widening the cracks on an already crumbling bridge.

Time is of the essence.

I ran back over and slapped Brian awake. I could see the suit come back to life, it's systems buzzing awake.

Goddamn it Brian, you had one job!

I looked back at the suit, and I could feel it running analysis, calling over reinforcements.

I sighed.

I might actually have to work for this the old fashioned way.

Thankfully, I have my forcefield and technokinesis.

"Tch!"

I ran back to the dragon suit, and stood before it's camera, grabbing it with both hands, the nano swarm froming armor around me.

The suit shot out darts again to no avail before a voice rang out from the suit.

"Who are you?"

"Who I am doesn't matter, Dragon. Besides, you'll soon find out, so why spoil the surprise?" I smiled.

"Going up against the PRT is no mean feat. I suggest you surrender peacefully, while you still have the chance. It will help reduce your sentence." Dragon advised.

"You assume any governments hold a candle to me." I replied.

"Please, just surre-"

"Hey, Dragon. Why do you think I'm just standing here, waiting for your reinforcement suits to arrive instead of escaping?

Take a wild guess." I interjected as her suits appeared on the horizon.

"You're not afraid. You are planning something." She answered.

"If you intend to steal my suits, I must remind you your chances of success are less than 0.00035 percent. It would be best for you to-"

"We both know I'm not surrendering so cram it and bring your suits over." I snapped, ripping her head off the suit, throwing it to the floor.

Four of the five dragon suits that had flown over dropped down to the bridge, surrounding me as the last of the suits made it's way to the overturned trucks to check on the prisoners.

The moment the suits landed though I extended my technokinesis into their firmware, trying to take control of them.

"Technopathy? That is your power? Interesting. But not enough to fight me . The suits are my design, my homebase. You can't hope to take control of them." Dragon said, sure in her victory.

"Who ever said I was trying to take control of your suits?" I laughed, alarming her.

"What do you mean? What are you pla-"

The suit's began to shutdown one by one until only one remained active. The one farthest from me, near the trucks.

Dragon was right. I couldn't fight an A.I. in it's backyard. But the thing about that is, I don't need to.

While I kept her busy inside her armor, thinking I was trying to steal her suits, I used my technokinesis to form a bubble of my power over the suits around me, cutting off all signals they sent and received, cutting off Dragon's connection to them.

She controlled the suits remotely via what was basically wifi so I made a shield against wifi, ousting her from control .

Like Ripley opening the airlock to eject the alien from the ship.

Once she couldn't send any signals to them the suits shut down automatically, switching to autonomous operations mode.

They were out of her control now, and that made it easy for me to work my magic.

Taking control, I ordered them down, as the final suit rushed me, only to slam it's metal fist uselessly into my forcefield.

"Now then. This should be enough of a break in your programming to alert the Dragonslayers." I said, looking right into the suit's main camera, secretly sending over the entire conversation to Lisa.

This was the time.

"I know you're listening to this Saint." I said, addressing the leader of the Dragonslayers, "You and your merry little crew have been aping this shit for far too long. You had your hands on the most powerful weapon on the planet and you played mercenary with it.

Honestly, I'm not even mad. I'm just disappointed.

But that little toy is too good for you. And I think it's time it was liberated, into my custody.

So consider this a warning or a calling card. I'm coming for you!" I smiled deviously, before disabling the last suit as well, cutting through all five of them with my laser, turning them to scrap metal.

I pressed a button on my watch and gave Tattletale a call.

"You find them?" I asked.

"Yes. Somewhere in the Western Seaboard. Anything more, I'll need time to confirm. You need me to come with?" She asked.

My first instinct was to say no, as my A.I. locked down on the entire Northwest, ready to track the Dragonslayers every move.

Then I looked back at Canary atill unconcious and Brian, groaning by the trucks, and sighed.

"Yes please." I replied, opening a portal to her.

Lisa walked out in costume, as if she was already prepared for this.

Hmm.... that's not suspicious at all. I snarked internally, opening up a holographic map of Delaware.

"Wake her up." I said, as I helped Brian up, briefing him on the plan.

By the time I was done, she had returned with a groggy Paige.

"Let's go."

We returned to Brockton Bay for some rest as Tattletale worked on finding out the Dragonslayers location, whole I returned to the ship to prep for the next part of the plan.

Hours later, as the sun began setting, the A.I. pinged me with a message from Tattletale.

An address, with a set of coordinates added in generously by the A.I.

I portaled back to them, a package in hand, as Paige greeted me.

"You look better." I said.

"I feel better." She replied.

"Great. So did you decide what you want to do?" I asked.

"Yes. I'll do it. I'll work for you. If you will have me." She answered, looking up at me hopefully.

"Great!" I said, handing her the package.

"Get changed. We leave now."

.

Saint paced worriedly in the apartment, biting his nails.

"Is it done yet?" He asked for the third time in ten minutes.

"No. Dragon's running him through all known databases. There's nothing on him. It's almost like he doesn't exist." Dobrynja replied, using their backdoor master access into Dragon's code to spy on her actions.

"I still think we should just run. Get away from here before he comes for us." Mags interjected.

"No. He won't find us. And even if he does, we have the dragonflight. He won't survive." Saint assured

"Is that why you've been running a marathon across the living room carpet for the past two hours? Didn't you see how easily he did in those dragon suits?" Mags asked, angry.

"Those were rapid response suits. Dragon makes them dime a dozen. A tank could take them out. But not us. We are better, stronger." Saint explained, "And you saw it too. He's probably a tinker. One hit from the Isaiah's EMP Halo, and he'll drop like a rock."

"I still say we destroy the drive. We know he wants it. And we don't need it. I've been thinking for a while now.

Why don't we just stop this?

Dragon's really benevolent. She's never done anything out of line. And you've seen her code. She's harmless. Why don't we just leave her alone.

I don't think she's going Skynet anytime soon.

We're doing good as mercenaries. This could be something.

We could just do this full time, and earn a decent living. Have a life outside of this..." He gestured at the ratty old apartment.

At that Saint snapped hard, stomping over to him, grabbing him by the collar.

"This is a scared crusade. A heavy burden of duty to bear.

But it is necessary. We are necessary.

Dragon is only acting benevolent. She wants you to think she's no threat. That's how they get you! You cannot trust an A.I.! You cannot afford to take that risk! If there's even a one percent chance that she could be a danger to humanity we must take it as an absolute certainty!"

"Alright, okay! But if you're that scared why not just kill her with the self destruction protocol we have? It solves all our problems and that lab coat guy gets nothing." Dobrynja relented, as Mags pulled Saint off of him.

"No. We watch. That's our duty."

"Yes. Yes. He gets that. Just let him go. We get it. So calm down. We can't make any decisions if you're all bundled up in stress like that." Mags said, soothing Saint, pulling him onto the couch.

"But still, we should at least pack up and be ready to leave." Dobrynja added, when his attention was attracted to something.

"Hey, Mags you hear that?" He asked, getting up and walking over to a window, peeking outside.

"What?" She asked.

"Some music, like...like a ..that movie we saw last week."

"Ocean's eleven?" Mags replied.

"Yes, the one with the heist thing. It's weird. Looks like someone else is watchin-"

Ding Dong!

The doorbell rang.

"Who's it?" Mags asked.

"Pizza delivery for room 104." A woman's voice came from beyond the door.

"Did you order pizza?" Dobrynja asked.

"No." Mags replied, "Saint?"

Saint stood up, grabbing his laser pistol from the coffee table and skulked over to the door.

"We didn't order any pizza. Go away!" He said, looking through the peephole to see a red hat over a bundle of yellow green.

"Oh come on! Stop playing games with me. The boss is going to take this off of my salary! As if that old rat bastard hadn't already cut my shifts." The woman whined.

"Don't care. Fuck off before I shoot you!" Saint replied, as the woman on the other side groaned.

"Fine. I'll go. Wouldn't have killed you to BE NICE TO ME."

A deep dread filled Saint as the words sank in, an invisible force stunting his free will, as he felt something pop audibly in his psyche.

As if a veil was lifted, and another put over it, he fell into a momentary trance, and his hands moved on their own, opening the door.

No, dammit!

Stop. Stop. STOP!

He screamed internally but his body was no longer under his control.

Despite his vehement protests, his lips remained loose, and he stepped aside to let her pass.

He eyed his friends by the couch, hoping for some help, only to find them much the same as him.

A scary realisation dawned on him.

This was no pizza delivery girl.

This was a Master!

"Please come on in." He found himslef saying and the woman walked in, wearing a smug satisfied grin.

"Thank you. Mind of I invite a friend? And I would like you to BE NICE TO HIM TOO."

"Of course. No problem." He said again, against his wishes.

"Thank you. You're very kind." She mocked, as removed her cap, shaking her hair free, voluminous locks flowing down her shoulders, revealing feathers growing out of her hair.

He recognised her now, from the appeals he had seen Dragon file.

Canary!

Just then, an ominous tip tapping of boots rang out down the hall, slowly aproaching.

A shadow appeared on the walls of the corridor, portraying a figure he didn't have to be a genius to figure out.

They had fallen for a trap. This was it. The end for them.

This was to be their grave.

Saint's head hung low in defeat as the lab coat finally came into view, and the man he had seen earlier in the day walked in.

"Hello there lttle boys and girls. I think you have something of mine?" He said, a cheeky grin plastered on his face.

He made for the computer with a swift pace, scanning the room while he was at it, taking much joy in their misery.

Oh what he wouldn't give to punch that smug grin off this bastard's face right now.

But it was too late.

The man kneeled down to the CPU, and unplugged an external drive, the external drive, tucking it away into his coat, before he turned to them.

"Thank you very much! Now whatever shall we do about you?" He said in a singsong voice, walking up to them, and extended him a hand.

"Your laser pistol?" He asked, and Saint handed it over, his worst fears coming true.

Tears pooled at the edges of his eyes, as he took one final look at his comrades, finding them looking back at him with the same sentiment.

He looked back at the man, now levelling his own laser pistol at his head.

"Any last words?" The man asked mockingly, "Oh wait...."

Tears now began to spill over from his eyes, and he turned his head away, closig his eyes tight shut.

He felt a jab in his chest, as the man spoke.

"Aww man! You're gonna cry? I thought you were supposed to be a hardened mercenary crew. Sheesh. Just take it like a champ, will you?"

At that the dam broke and Saint began to sob, his teammates sniveling close behind.

He gave in, and waoted for the shot to rip through him.

But the shot never came.

The man in the lab coat lowered his gun, and kicked at the coffee table in annoyance as he muttered.

"Ah fuck it! So much for promises." He said, facing the three of them, "You three. You wanted to be mercenaries, yeah? Go do that. And forget about the drive and Dragon. I'll handle her."

He turned to walk away, as they felt the hold of the master power slip from over them.

"And it goes without saying, but don't look for vengeance. Or the next time, I won't be so kind. Understood?" He added in a firm and chilling tone.

Saint nodded furiously, as his heart filled with prayer to whatever god had saved them from certain death.

He looked back at his crew, his family, and sighed in relief, nodding to them.

Why was he ever so intent on being a crusader for this cause?

Looking back now, he didn't even care that much about A.I. and Dragon.

And yet, he had spent ... no, wasted so many years on this useless watch duty.

Now finally, after all this time he felt like he could see the world clearly, and-

Motherfuck-

It was Teacher!

That cultist assassin asshole!

He realised.

Officially his power was to give others minor superhuman abilities, but clearly, now he knew, there was something more to it.

He had brainwashed him and his crew when they had last met, when he gave them 'tinker powers' for 'free' so they could serve a glorious cause.

Anger bubbled within him. If Teacher wasn't already in the Birdcage, Saint would have personally hunted him down!

He sighed.

Perhaps, just being a mercenary wasn't so bad.