Chapter 14: Talking to a Dragon

Skyjutsu - Definitely not going that route, Lisa was just an example.

Boredking - That'd be hilarious.

Redburndragon - Yeah, but Ultimate Heatblast is too heavy for that to work.

Since I'm getting into the whole Ben 10 theme, I've been relistening too and watching some clips of the series, and I found this guy who does realistic Ben 10 aliens on YT, name's Artimus. Check him out.

That aside, lots of talking here, and the first lewd too.

Waking up, I grinned as I looked at Taylor. My Other Half was conked out on my chest, soft grumbling being the only noise coming from her as she kept herself locked against me like some kind of koala. I was pretty sure I'd never get tired of the sight, but then I noticed something that made me more then a little worried.

As a teenager again, waking up with morning wood wasn't anything new, I'd usually managed to deal with it before Taylor woke up, the few times I didn't had embarrassed her, but she was an expert at compartmentalizing and ignoring things, but this time was different. Trying to get rid of it wasn't working since I'd remember the sensations of Taylor grinding against me yesterday, an action she slowly did even now, her lips on my neck, which I was pretty sure left a visible mark or two, and the 'Promise' she'd made.

Add onto the fact I hadn't gotten the chance to be by myself for a bit, showers and my runs as XLR8 and Wildmutt didn't count, my hormones acting like the devil on my shoulder, and with Taylor's current position of having her stomach pressed against my dick, I was practically fighting off demons trying to keep myself from doing anything. (Note to self, take a detour on my run and come home to j...-) I froze when I recognized the feeling of Taylor's mind waking up, a buzz of Annoyance reaching me as I realized she heard that.

My Other Half groaned, eyes blearily opening as she leveled a sleepy glare at me. |Shuddup goof... Mine.| The wave of Possessiveness made me blink, but I didn't have much time to think on it considering she moved forwards, her lips back on my neck, kissing it as she slowly ground herself against me. My hands roamed her lithe body, one ending up on the small of her back, while the other gripped her ass. A shudder and low moan came from her at that, and she let go of my neck, getting up and properly straddling me to look at me with more awake eyes.

I looked up as I met her Lustful gaze, and felt my lips twitch. "Going back on your date idea?"

She huffed, then gave me a grin, trying and failing to hide the small bit of Anxiousness I felt from her. "No penetration." I blinked, once, then twice, and realized what that meant. She nodded at me, her hands roaming underneath my shirt and down my chest, nails lightly scratching me, but in a good way. "I want our first time together to be special... But that doesn't mean we can't... Practice, beforehand." I was pretty sure the pulse of Desire came from the both of us, but it was the look in my girlfriend's eyes that did it.

She wanted this.

I wanted this.

So I gave in, and did what we both wanted.

Lime Start

Taylor let out a yelp as I rolled over, her head landing on a pillow as I looked down at her. Excitement pulsed between us, and I only gave her a moment to take in our new position before I leaned down and kissed her. Her arms wrapped around my neck, while the hand I had on her back moved to her front, snaking under her shirt and getting a handful of her breast right before I pinched her nipple. Oh fuck. Her lips opened for a moan, but my tongue shot into her mouth before she could get it out.

She gave into me at that point, Pleasure radiating from her as my hand grasped and molded her tit, the other rubbing her ass and thigh. We stayed like this for who knows how long, and eventually separated to breath. Nooo, come back. That thought made me grin, one that only grew when she opened her eyes, a Need in them that said all I needed to know. |Shut up and kiss me Phoenix.| I laughed, lowering back down, only to turn at the last moment. Wha...- Oooh, yes that's gooood. And latch onto her neck.

Turnabout was fair play, so I kissed and bit into Taylor's neck, fully intending to give her hickies of her own. And given the moans I was hearing, plus the Pleasure and Love coming off of her, I knew just how much she liked this. My lips trailed up and down her neck, her arms lowering to my back as her nails dug into me. Feeling them dig into my back, even through my shirt, I hissed and bit into her neck a little harder then I meant too. The loud moan, and amount of Pleasure the harder bite got me pretty much confirmed something I'd wondered about. (So we're both a little masochistic. Interesting.)

I knew she caught that thought, since a kindling of Interest came from her. |Wh...- loweee...- What do yo... Mph... Mean?| Kissing the base of her neck, I demonstrated by biting it. Fuckfuckfuck! Her nails dug into my back, practically ignoring my shirt as my Other Half was flooding our Bond with Pleasure. We moaned at the sensations, and I moved back to get a good look at h...- NO!

I only had a moment to pause before Taylor shot up, crashing into me and knocking me onto my back. Looking into her eyes, I saw and felt enough Lust to recognize I was in danger. Her hands came off from my back, going to the base of my shirt before she practically ripped the thing off me. That idly made me wonder how the fuck she did that, but she didn't stop there, taking off her own top and letting me get a good look at my practically naked, all that was left were her panties, girlfriend. Her hair was wild with bed head, eyes shining like polished jade, cheeks red from her blush, neck marked up from what I'd done to her, and heavily panting as she glared at me like meat...

And I fucking loved it.

"You don't get me that fucking close and just stop!" That growl was all the warning I got before she dove onto my throat, lips and teeth kissing and sucking as her nipples and nails raked against me. I moaned as our hips ground against each other, both of us wanting release, which we could both tell was getting closer the longer this went on.

Said release came after I raised a hand, and slammed it down against Taylor's ass. [|Oh fuck!|]

Pleasure was the only thing we both knew as our Bond made us both aware of just how Good that felt. When I broke out of it, I noticed Taylor shuddering against me, still going through her orgasm... And I grinned as a thought hit me. Her eyes pinned me with a panicked but still Needy look as she heard what that thought was. "D-D-Don't you daaAARE!" My hand came up and went back down, the sound of her shout ringing out as we both shuddered at the Pleasure.

I felt my girlfriend get close again though, and noted she was sensitive after cumming.

Taylor practically melted into me, but despite being on a near high from how Good we were both feeling, she managed to raise herself up and reach for my pajama pants, which I realized were probably going to need to be burned after this, and pulled them down low enough for my cock to come out. There was a pause as Surprise, Lust, and Hunger ran through her, and I watched as she bit her lip, then looked at me. I was interested in where this was going, so I nodded at her.

My Other Half moved down, crawling back before she eventually stopped between my legs. I'd kicked off my pants by that point, because I'd rather not have them on when they were ruined. Though, seeing her disheveled and sweaty appearance, and the way she looked at me as she wrapped a hand around the base of my cock, I was super fucking tempted to ignore what we had planned for today, and just fuck her until we passed out from emotional overload. |... While I want to do that too, we have plans.| I groaned at that, but let it go when she gave my cock a jerk.

Okay Taylor, we're this far already, we can do this. And then she put the tip in her mouth, making me moan as I felt her warm lips and mouth take it in and keep going until she got halfway down. Satisfaction, Interest, and Hunger hit me, but I didn't pay them any mind, It's... I'll need some time to figure out if I like it or not... But now I 'm supposed to do... This, I think? Her tongue gently swirled around my tip as she sucked, another moan coming from me as I closed my eyes. Seeing that, she upped her efforts and started bobbing her head, my mind starting to go bla...- Wonder what'll happen if I do this? I felt her start jerking me, and it was like I was on cloud 9. Satisfaction, Pleasure, Lust, Hunger and Mischievousness brought me out of my haze, unsure of whose that was or if it was both of ours, and I blearily opened my eyes to see my girlfriend looking directly at me, a sense of Victory and Satisfaction coming from her as she slowly took more of my cock into her mouth, stopping at 3/4ths down as she gagged a bit, her spit traveling down my cock as she stared me in my eyes...

And I was pretty sure it was the sexiest thing I was ever going to see in my life.

My girlfriend smirked at me, then went back to sucking my cock, a Desire, in her that brought me closer to the edge. When she racked her free hand's nails down my chest, and went back down to her current limit, I knew that was it. Taylor knew it too, and jerked me faster as she sucked, |Cum! Do it, cum for me!| That was all I needed, and I felt myself cum into my girlfriend's mouth.

When I came back from the amount of Pleasure and Relief I felt, I saw my girlfriend take my cock out of my mouth, and grin at me as she swallowed and licked her lips. Not exactly good, but its not bad either I'll either get used to it or I won't. I just blankly stared at her, the urge to just say 'Fuck it' and ta...- "Nope." I blinked like an owl and watched as my Other Half rose off the bed, grin still on her face as she suddenly turned and started walking towards the door. Before she left though, she looked over her shoulder and licked her lips again. "I win." And then she sashayed out of the fucking room, my eyes tracking her ass while she walked away...

I just STARED at the door after that, my mind trying to make sense of what just happened.

And when it eventually did, I nodded. [I'm going to make you scream.] The amount of Shock, Surprise, and Lust that comment got didn't surprise me at all.

Lime End

After we both showered, we were both sweaty and stank like sex, we made breakfast. That had been fun since now that we both had a taste of what the other could do, we couldn't keep our hands from straying from time to time. A little brush against one another here, One of us pressing against the other to get something there, Taylor nipping on my ear here, me spanking her there, and we were halfway there to just saying fuck it and going again.

Though, we were hungry, and both ended up agreeing, Reluctantly, that breakfast came first, then our plans.

When we got home was entirely up to our future selves though.

The ever increasing sexual tension aside, we managed to talk about how the talk with Dragon was going to go. Since we were in Canada, it wouldn't be an issue for us to set up a meeting at the guild. Granted, no place on earth was an issue for XLR8 or Jetray to go for a meeting. We talked about whether we should have the meeting here, somewhere neutral, or go meet at The Guild.

While I didn't mind where, we both understood that I had to get in the habit of actually contributing ideas, so Taylor didn't man the helm of our partner/relationship on her own.

It eventually came down to meeting at The Guild, it'd be a show of good will and would hopefully start things on the right foot, so I sent Dragon a message asking for a time. She asked if 1PM was good, and after some confirmation, we agreed.

With that set up, we realized we had a few hours to kill, and decided to do some training. We both had too much energy at the moment, and needed to burn it off. So, we entered the Danger Room and had some fun.

Running around a wall, Taylor and I huffed and checked our guns. "I've got half a clip in my Wingman, another one in the back, and a loaded clip with a pair of full mags for my Longbow. You?" I was going to set up a training range, because missing so much with my pistol was annoying. Getting down to just 12 bullets for my Wingman was embarrassing, but thankfully I had 36 left for my Longbow.

She hummed, a grin on her face as she looked at me. "60% on my Sentinel, and 35% on my Hawkmoon. So 48 and 35."(Destiny 2 Hand Cannon, but with 10 rounds a clip.) That was good.

Though the Amusement made me roll my eyes. "Yes yes, you're the better shot, I know." Her smug smile was both annoying, and beautiful. The blush and playful slap to my shoulder that got me made me grin. "Anyway, how are we getting out of this Mi Reina?"

At the moment, we were doing a challenge mode, no armor, grenades, or Ultimatrix allowed, and we were up against some Left 4 Dead/CoD zombies. The goal was to find the boss, which we had, but we needed to get to it first, and beat it. The issue was that I underestimated how annoying zombie dogs would be, the fuckers moved too fast for me to reliably hit them with my Wingman, and I didn't have time to set up somewhere because Smokers and Hu...- |Get down!| Not questioning it, I dropped to the ground, a Hunter jumping at me, only to get the barrel of a Hawkmoon in its mouth.

The trigger was squeezed, and the Hunter faded into digital light.

Getting back up, I felt my lips twitch at the smug smile my Other Half shot me. "You knew it was there the entire time, didn't you?" Her smile grew, and I rolled my eyes. "Brat."

She snorted at that. "Gee, I wonder where I'm getting it from." I laughed at that, but stopped when the loud cry of a Witch hit our ears. Taylor and I looked at each other, blinked, then ran for our lives.

Sure, we couldn't actually get hurt, unless we fell wrong, but neither of us wanted to deal with a Witch.

When we were done with the 'Training' session, we got suited up, and made our way out of our home. Waiting for the door to close and cloak, I turned to my Other Half when they did, and grinned under my helmet. "Ready for the ride of a lifetime?"

She let out an amused huff, and tugged at the saddle she was carrying. "You've just been waiting to say that, haven't you." My unseen smile, and Amusement was enough of an answer. "Uhuh. Just waiting on you now."

Letting out a small laugh, I reached for the Ultimatrix, the fibers of my suit writhing away as I popped the dial. After a bit of searching, I found my pick. Selecting the lad, I pushed down the dial, and felt the world fall away as the transformation took place. When it finished, I slammed my paws into the ground and roared "WILDMUTT!" While I was the only one that could understand it, shouting the Vulpimancer's name was still awesome.

"Still hard to see this form as 'Awesome', when you're ultimate weakness is belly rubs." I directed an unamused look at her fo...- "That doesn't work either since you don't have eyes."

Taking in a breath, I held it for a bit, then sighed. [Why must you do this to me?]

Taylor laughed as she started setting up the saddle, made from the same fibers as our suits, so it doubled as armor. |Because I'm your girlfriend. It's universal law that we keep our men from getting too big of a head.|

Ammunition locked and loaded! [You liked my head when it was big though.] My girlfriend choked, and thanks to my senses I could even see her face as she did it. Wildmutt vision was awesome like that. A weak whack to my side got my attention, Annoying bastard, and that thought made me bark out a laugh. [Your annoying bastard though.]

My girlfriend grumbled a little, but got on anyway, grabbing the reins and settling onto my back. After a few moments, she nodded. "Alright, I'm good to go. Don't drop me."

That made me huff. [I'm insulted you'd think I'd do that.] I felt her deadpan at me, and decided to just run. My paws hit the earth, and I got into a rhythm as the world slowly started to fade away as my worries melted away. It was interesting to be honest.

Sure, he might not be the fastest, strongest, or most durable of my aliens, but Wildmutt had stamina for days and could run faster then a race horse. His max speed peaked around 140MPH in a straight line, 95 when I had to maneuver around things. Now just picture a 3'6 orange furred wall of muscle running at you as fast as a super car.

It was fucking awesome.

Anyway, The Guild was in British Columbia, only a state away, so running there wouldn't take too long, especially because I could jump and climb onto buildings, ignoring the streets and roads. Sure, we could've gotten there instantly by me going as XLR8 or Jetray, setting up a marker like I did for Brockton Bay, but we didn't do that for two reasons.

The first was that Taylor wanted us to be seen going to The Guild. We'd both seen a bunch of speculation about me being the next Endbringer, me being some kind of alien here to reshape the world, which was half right, or an agent of God... I wasn't touching that one.

But being seen going to The Guild would change the course of the discussion, as well as public perception, so that was apparently a good thing that Taylor wanted to happen. I didn't care what anyone else thought of me, I didn't know any of them so they didn't matter. That'd probably change if the whole 'Making friends' thing worked, but that was a future me problem. 'Amy is actually fun, she's a snarky bitch... But the fun kind.' I mentally hummed, and accepted that.

You could never have enough snark in your life after all. 'Dragon is... She's kind of like the stern but kind aunt figure.' I would've blinked if I could. That was unexpected, but still interesting.

While I was thinking about that, my Other Half spoke up. |I still find it a little weird that that happens.| I sent over an image of me mentally shrugging. |You're still way too nonchalant about the whole thing too.|

If I could, I'd raise a brow at her. [Taylor, thinking too hard about how my future self found a way to view/send messages to the past would give me a headache, and I like not having to deal with those.] She mentally rolled her eyes at me, but I took it in stride. [Besides, we get free spoilers, so this is a good thing.] The Confused hum she let out was enough. [Well, now we know that it works, right? If I called Panacea by Amy instead of her actual name, then it means we're good enough to be friends. And if I consider Dragon as family, then that says good things about her.]

There was a pulse of Curiosity from Taylor, and I hummed at her. She got it without me needing to ask. |Didn't you have a practically non existent relationship with your actual family though?| Ah, that was why.

Thinking about it, and idly noticing we'd entered a city, I responded with what I knew was the truth. [Yeah, but I didn't choose them. The only one I really cared for was my sister, and that wasn't a high bar.]

|Oh... Okay. Take a left here by the way.| 'Looking' around, I saw a lamp post, and grinned at my idea. Taylor's grip tightened on my reigns. |Phoenix, I swear to gooOOOOD!| Jumping, I landed on it, claws tightening around the metal before I jumped again, wrecking it as I dug my claws into the closest building, scaling it when I got the chance. |I'm going to neuter you!|

I barked out laughing at that, running across the roofs and jumping away as my Other Half mentally ranted at me.

Still, I could feel the Thrill and Excitement coursing through her, so she was fooling no one.

Eventually, we made it to The Guild.

The building looked like a fortress... And also kind of like the base from Power Rangers Beast Morphers... Just with turrets and other weapons hidden inside of the walls and area... (Okay, note to self, build a bunch of turrets outside the mountain, because this is cool as shit.) My Other Half snorted as she got off, looking around at some of the turrets that had popped up as we got here, their sights on us. She wasn't worried though, for good reason considering Dragon knew we were coming, leaving those turrets sort of inert. [What? It is!]

|Never said it wasn't. Just amused that you're being wowed by flashy guns and a big building.| I huffed at that, and sent over the image of the Grid Battleforce building. She paused for a bit, started looking around more, then nodded. |I see it.|

Mentally rolling my eyes at her, I tapped the dial, turning back into myself and walking up to her side. "Of course you see it, it's right fucking there." She backhanded my shoulder for that, but I just scoffed. "Not hearing any disagreements here."

"Whatever," Still not a no. "Anywaaay!" I laughed as she made her way through the front gate, and towards the doors. I followed after her, humming the tune to Might Morphing Power Rangers... Which didn't exist here, because this world was fucking horrible. |You're right, but think it quieter next time.| I cackled, ignoring the worried looks shot my way.

While I was laughing like a maniac, Taylor/Khepri had gone up to the reception desk, and was about to talk to the shocked woman, when a drone thing came around. We both turned towards it, and I doubted either of us were surprised when a familiar voice came from it. "Hello Khepri... Anubis? Or do you prefer Sun Wukong?"

Tilting my head, I thought about it for a second, then shrugged. "Anubis in the suit."

The drone bobbed a bit, which amused me. "Very well. It's nice to meet you two. I've secured our meeting room, so if you'd follow me please."

Nodding, Taylor and I did just that. While we walked, I kept my eyes on our surroundings, even though it was redundant considering Taylor's range. |No, it's good. I can only pick out a thousand or so bugs in the area, so feel free to keep an eye on things.| I mentally hummed at that. Usually in a building this size, there'd be bugs on natter what, especially the smaller ones that no one really gives a shit about.

So knowing that there were that 'Few' bugs in a multi leveled building like this, was both impressive, and a little suspicious. [Eyes peeled and best boi ready to be dialed in. Though it'll be annoying if I went through all this effort to just end up fighting.]

|We don't know how it'll go yet. But keep your guard up.|

[Mi Reina, it's never been down.] She mentally nodded, and I went back to looking around.

We walked for a bit longer, going into an elevator at some point, Dragon making small talk as was passed a bunch of goons, some normies and guys in suits, some weirdos in spandex, that thought made Taylor laugh, but she covered it with a cough, and a bunch of rooms.

Eventually we made it to the room we were going to talk in, and I followed the women into it.

Looking around, I noticed it was a small conference room, the windows showing a pretty nice view, the square table in front of us looked pretty nice, and I idly wondered if I should yoink it. |Phoenix...| Exasperation hit me along with that.

I rolled my eyes at the threatening tone. [Fine, I won't steal the table.] My girlfriend let out a small huff at that, and made her way to the table. Naturally, I went along and sat by her side like the faithful boyfriend and partner I was... And ignored the sudden sound of crickets going off in my mind.

I was about to reply with something, but the drone went to float behind a chair, the lights glowing brighter for a moment before a hologram appeared, sitting in the chair like she was actually there. If I hadn't made the Danger Room, discount as it was, I'd be impressed. The hologram looked like a decently attractive woman in a penguin suit, Where did that phrase even come from?

That aside, the woman had strawberry blonde hair down to her shoulders, earth brown eyes behind the frames of glasses, and looked like a stereotypical politician as she sat with her legs crossed and hands folded in front of her. "We've already done introductions, but now that we're here, we may as well do them officially, right?" My girlfriend nodded, while I shrugged. Dragon took our answers in stride, and smiled. It was a warm one, and I could already see why my future self called her the 'Stern but kind aunt.' "Well then, as you know I am Dragon of The Guild. May I know your names?"

My lips twitched as I watched my Other Half straighten up, her hands clasping together in a similar way to Dragon's as any Anxiety or Doubt bled away and was put into the Swarm. "I am Khepri, co-leader of Pantheon." I preened at that, I'd thrown the name out there and she liked it, so we stuck with it.

Anyway, it was my turn. I didn't sit right though, deciding to just drop my head onto the table, taking in the pulse of Annoyance and Exasperation from my partner, and looked at Dragon. "Anubis/Sun Wukong, the more monke brain and less sexy half of Pantheon." Taylor's Annoyance bleed into Embarrassment, and I was living for it. Damned goof.

The Canadian Hero let out a small hum at that, her brow raised in interest as she looked between Taylor and I with the same calm and warm smile as earlier. Though, I could tell she was interested in this. Upgrade and Grey Matter bled over into me a bit due to how often I used them, so reading an A.I's expressions were surprisingly easy. "Well then, with introductions out of the way, what do you say about getting into the reason I asked for this meeting, as well as why you two agreed to see me?"

I obviously turned to Taylor, blatantly telling Dragon to ask Khepri everything. We'd talked about who was going to do the speaking, and after recognizing that I was a horrible diplomat, it was left to my girlfriend.

Taking the cue, she spoke. "We're amenable to that."

Turning back to the Artificial Woman, we watched as she nodded, and schooled her features as screen blinked into existence around her. We both recognized them as Canberra, the volcano I'd made seemed to still be going strong, though there was more cooled magma there, so there was a natural source of volcanic rock if I needed it for anything. "Approximately 14:00 hours ago yesterday, The Simurgh made landfall in Canberra Australia. The raid proceeded in a somewhat normal fashion, until the sudden attack on the Search & Rescue center." I noticed Taylor twitch at that, but sent Safety and Protectiveness over to her, getting Warmth and Affection back. Though a clip of the attack was pulled up, and I had to physically put a hand on her knee to keep her grounded. Dragon saw it, and gave us a sad smile. "I'm sorry for bringing it up, but this needs to be addressed. However, I can close the video if you'd like."

My girlfriend took in a breath, and slowly let it out. "No, no it's fi...-" I could feel how Anxious looking at the feathered bitch spinning buildings was making her, she was putting it into the Swarm, but it wasn't needed.

So I stepped in. "Yeah, no. What she means is she'd rather not see herself almost die again. And neither do I to be honest."

Taylor snapped towards me, physically and mentally, but I just squeezed her leg, and kept 'Looking' at Dragon. The A.I nodded at me, the screen of the winged whore blinking out of existence. |Phoenix!|

I hummed at the hiss and Displeasure. [No. There was no reason for you to keep looking at it aside from being stubborn.] She grumbled at that, and I physically turned my head to narrow my eyes at her. [Taylor, so help me if you try to make an argument about watching yourself almost die, I will drag you home and put you in bubble wrap.] My Other Half blinked, thought about what I'd just threatened her with, and slowly nodded, Acceptance coming over from her. [Good.]

We turned back to see the confused but interested look on the hologram's face. She probably thought we closed some kind of channel or something, but she didn't comment about it. "After the volley was launched, the form you have called XLR8," I could hear the way the woman subtly cringed saying the name, and snickered, while my girlfriend sighed. "Breaking the sound barrier and creating a sonic boom in order to save Khepri." She paused here, giving the both of us a sad but understanding look. "Seeing as you are both here before me, I'd like to say congratulations for succeeding." Blinking, I just nodded, which needed me to raise my head a bit, but then I dropped it back down, while Taylor copied me by nodding. "Sadly, I need to inform you that this action caused dozens of burst eardrums from Capes within the immediate vicinity, which then led to casualties due to them being unable to hear retreat orders." My girlfriend stilled., and I had a moment to recognize that neither of us thought of that. "The number of Capes who died due to this is speculated to be 14."

Staring at the hologram, I resisted the urge to say 'Ok, and?' There'd been more important things at stake then random nobodies. I felt a wave of Discomfort and Sorrow hit my Other Half at that, only for it to be shunted into the Swarm. "We... See." Yeah, we were going to need to have another talk later. |We'll figure it out later, okay?| I mentally hummed, then agreed. We both knew that even though a problem was acknowledged, it wasn't magically resolved in a day. "What about the casualties from Agni?"

Neither of us missed the way the hologram looked at me for a moment then looked away. "Agni's rampage is speculated to have caused atleast 40 casualties."

The wave of Sorrow and Guilt hit me from her side of our Bond, and I turned to her. [Not your fault. Blame me if you have too, but not yourself.] Her response was a muted nod, making my eye twitch. [Another thing we're going to talk about later.] That got me a more emotive nod, which was enough for now.

Turning back to Dragon, I scrutinized her appearance, Her hologram had been emotive and readable, I'd easily say if I didn't already know about the drone and her situation, I'd think she was actually here and physically responding to the news she was giving us. Granted, I was cheating due to using personal experience as a temporary construct of nanites and a giga brain frog, so I was probably seeing things she didn't expect to be seen.

While I did that, my Other Half managed to stabilize herself, and breathed out. "What does this mean for us, and how can we improve our standing to the PRT and The Guild?" It was a good question.

One Dragon seemed to approve of given the way her features softened. "That first question is... It's complicated." I felt one of my brows raise at that. "While the casualties, speculated and confirmed, have been documented, Agni's feat of damaging The Simurgh, as well as giving us a potential weakness, have put you both in a somewhat strong position." Now she had our attention. "As it stands, the two of you can ask for negotiations with the Triumvirate, and get them within the day."

That meant fuck all to me, but Taylor felt Awe and Excitement at the thought... Then remembered what I'd told her about them, the Awe diminishing. The Excitement was still there though, but that was fine.

Sure, I hadn't told her everything about her idol and her friend's skeletons, I wasn't going to test if the fedora woman or her Illuminati would be able to know if Taylor thought of them, so there were things she, and Queen Administrator by proxy, didn't know. (I'm going to have to deal with them at some point.) That thought bounced around in my mind for a bit, but I brushed it away. I'd build some super bomb with my big brains and drop it on them when I was ready.

My thoughts aside, Dragon went on. "The issue is that Agni, Anubis, Son Wukong, and yourself by association, are being debated to be Truce Breakers." Ah, there was the other shoe. My Other Half pulsed with Fear and Foreboding before she kicked it to her bugs. Too bad Dragon wasn't done yet. "I say 'Debate', due to the aforementioned fact of Agni fighting off The Simurgh." The screens changed, multiple angles of me as Ultimate Heatblast/Agni, throwing around solar fire and manipulating the earth to attack the bitch.

Seeing it from another perspective was interesting. Agni, because seeing myself in action was badass enough for me to agree that yeah, that was god tier shit right there, was a force of nature. (Mhm... Wonder if I can make our mountain bigger...)

The shot of Alarm that came from Taylor almost made me jump. Though seeing her head whip towards me, most likely glaring underneath her helmet, made me sweat. "I swear to god if you try to do something like that to our home, Wildmutt or not, I'm going to actually neuter you." The threat in her voice made me shiver.

I doubted she'd do it, highly doubted, but no way was I putting the jewels on the line to irritate my girlfriend. "Read you loud and clear Mi Reina."

A small chuckle came from the other side of the table, making us both blink and realize we said that out loud. Taylor was Embarrassed about that, while I just hummed at the hologram's amused smile. "What this means," My lips twitched at the fact that she didn't mention our little moment. "Is that you two CAN improve the public's perception of yourselves by siding with The Guild/Protectorate. Ideally, I'd prefer it if you chose us." And there was the hook.

I knew we both understood the potential sales pitch for what it was, and mentally turned to each other. |Thoughts?|

Tilting my head to the side, I stared at Dragon. Disregarding what my future self said, I thought about what I knew about the woman. In pretty much every fic I'd read, she'd been a good and genuine character. She might've had shit taste in men if she was actually interested in Armsmaster, Wait what? My girlfriend's Surprised Confusion aside, I weighted the idea of working with a most likely genuine person who just so happened to be a Artificial Intelligence, or with the organization ran by a woman in the Illuminati...

It was a no brainer in my opinion. [That's mine. What about yours?]

My Other Half went quiet for a bit, and her thoughts churned. The PRT hasn't really given me a good reason to believe they're trustworthy, Brockton Bay's department hasn't been able to really do anything despite being there for years. Phoenix and I have done more then they have after we brought in Skidmark and Squealer, I idly thought that she did that all on her own, And Ub3r and L33t, that we did together, so they're kind of incompetent... The Guild though has a good reputation, Dragon is recognized as The Tinker across the world, she's competent to the extreme, and is a good person to be a voice of reason and to look up too... Hmm... She audibly hummed, and I could tell a question was coming. "What would it mean for us to become affiliated with The Guild?"

Dragon smiled, and the screens flickered to The Guild's logo, a stereotypical image of the Earth but with a shield above it. "As you may know, The Guild is an International Defense Force authorized to work around the globe. As Heroic aligned Guild Members, and after passing qualification exams," As soon as I heard 'Exam', I thumped my head against the table and groaned. Taylor pulsed with Embarrassment and Shame, while Dragon pretended nothing happened. "Put forth by Narwhal and our Civilian Oversight Committee, you will be authorized to work outside of Canada, just like you already are." I could tell both Taylor and I didn't like how we'd need permission from some normies to do our thing, but neither of us interrupted the woman. "The process is usually a simple one, shadowing a Guild Hero on a few cases and assignments, some tests on how you would work in a situation regarding civilians, and how you can limit collateral damage," I felt like I was being called out for some reason. "Things like that. At most it will take a month for you both to gain approval, but it's ultimately up to you two how quickly you gain your qualifications." Now that sounded good to me, Taylor too if the Interest I was getting from her meant anything.

Despite the whole thing with 'Collateral damage' being there, I was fine with it. Not everyone was as destructive as Heatblast or Agni, and I could always just shoot people if the option to go alien wasn't available.

"And our responsibilities?" I turned an eye to my girlfriend. "How will being a member of The Guild impact responsibilities like our normal patrols or downtime?" Another good question. I knew I left the talking up to her for a reason. |It's because you're still lazy and bad at talking to anyone not me.|

[Those are two reasons.] She mentally rolled her eyes at me while I grinned.

Not knowing about the little byplay between us, Dragon nodded at Khepri. "Outside of assignments, you're free to do what you want, so long as it isn't anything villainous or puts people at risk. The only things you will be obligated to do will be to turn up for Endbringer fights, a monthly check in where all Guild affiliated Heroes come in and take atleast one assignment from The Guild, and to inform us if you expand, either in team size or location wise."

Taylor and I took that in, and looked to me, the silent question not even needing to be asked. "No problems here."

My Other Half nodded, and looked back to the A.I, who was calmly looking at us. "Can we...-" I looked at her, a brow raised behind my visor. Understanding the cue, she sighed. "Can I, look at the contract?" I turned back to Dragon in time to see the hologram nod, and snap her fingers.

The sound interested me, wondering if she just played a soundbite or something, but my attention was taken away by another drone coming around carrying papers. The little thing dropped em off in front of Taylor, and I watched as my girlfriend picked up the contract. I was tempted to lean over a bit and look at it too, for no other reason but to be annoying, |No, I need to focus on this right now.| And then had that decision blocked off.

With no idea what to do, I just opted to bring my arms up, idly noticing I hadn't taken my hand off her leg for the whole thing, and laid my head down onto them. It was a good thing that my fibers were soft, so this was actually really comfortable. As I did that, I decided to just stare at Dragon, see how long it took for her to say something about it.

So that's how we stayed for a bit. Taylor reading the contract, asking Dragon a few questions about it every once in a while, while the A.I and I stared at each other... Well, I stared, Dragon was just being professional... Though her hologram's lips twitched a bit, so she was obviously amused.

I had no idea how long this went on for, but Taylor eventually asked a pair of questions that I was interested in. "There's a portion here that talks about Tinker collaboration." Dragon and I both perked up at that. "I'm interested to know what this entails." I knew that was more for my sake then hers considering I was the one that made everything.

The A.I smiled at Khepri, and we could both tell she was a little excited. "Given my position as the Head Tinker of The Guild, I'm responsible for both overseeing, and providing aid to any of our affiliated Tinkers. What that means is that should any of our members make a request for help in a project, procuring materials, working on recreating some tech, I'll prioritize it over work with the Protectorate... Unless it's an emergency."

Humming at that, Taylor asked a big one. "How will material trading work? Quantity, quality, or both?" I knew where she was going with this, and had to admit, I was curious about how Dragon would answer it. Hopefully in a good way.

Though, watching the hologram metaphorically glow in enthusiasm wasn't something I expected. "We do both. Some Tinkers need common materials, so we are capable of setting up exchanges of money, other materials, or even things like ammunition or gear." She blinked, giving us a once over. "Those last two may or may not interest you though given the quality of your armor and weapons." I preened at that, happy that my work was appreciated. I also ignored Taylor's Amusement at my thoughts. "Quality is a similar system, but depending on just how high quality the materials are, the money, materials, ammunition, and gear, is higher tiered."

While I started to think about what I could use to upgrade our Danger Room or suits, my girlfriend kept on going. "Is there a contract for that, or do we need to join before seeing it?"

Dragon grinned. "The latter."

Taylor nodded, looking at the last pages of the contract, then mentally tapped my side of the Bond. |Again, you're sure you're fine with us joining The Guild?| I sent her the thumbs up emoji. "One last question." The A.I motioned for her to go on. "We won't have to be forced to share our identities, will we?"

The offended look the hologram made was answer enough. "No, no you won't. Identities are kept secret unless the Cape themselves feels like unmasking."

The way she said that also seemed to help, since my Other Half radiated Satisfaction. With a more enthusiastic nod from before, she set down the contract. "Do you have a pen?"

Dragon fucking beamed at us, and it was probably infectious given Taylor brightening up too.

And so we joined The Guild...

Which meant I had to bump up the Dragon Slayers on my 'To-Do' list.

Fucking great.

And that's that. Back to stockpiling I go! Hope ye enjoyed the chapters.