It’s Hero Time (Worm/Ben 10/SI)

[Firewillreign]

Galvan Prime was a breath-taking world, covered in lush forests, scattered water bodies, and dotted with wild terrains.

A rich and healthy planet with few equals, though its beauty was not a natural development.

Millions upon millions of years ago, a meteor with exceptional mass descended upon the planet in an event that would forever change its evolutionary destiny.

An event that would forever be referred to as the Great Cataclysm.

So great was the meteoric impact that it brought about a mass extinction, wiping out all but a few species that dwelt upon the planet's surface. Though it was a natural tragedy, it had far-reaching consequences, consequences that would one day be felt across the vastness of the universe, and beyond.

The Great Cataclysm resulted in the eventual extinction of the Omnivoracious. A massive avian hunter, the greatest natural predator the then-unnamed Galvan Prime had ever produced.

And the only natural predator of the young Galvan species.

The Galvans were one of many curious beings in the universe. Small, bipedal creatures that evolved from aquatic ancestors, they were small of stature yet great of mind, even then, during what they would consider their primitive ages.

Surviving the Cataclysm, the species that had only been limited by predation was free to blossom in a way most intergalactic communities could only dream of.

And blossom they did.

With their close social unity brought on by the harsh conditions of the damaged planet and their mighty intellects, the Galvan race began to develop at breakneck paces.

Leaps in the comprehension fundamental sciences and essential technologies that would have taken other species millennia were achieved and surpassed in mere fractions of the time. Their position as the sole cognisant and higher-thinking people of their home world allowed them unhindered access to Galvan Prime's rich resources, further aiding their development and their path to achieving a post-scarcity society.

In time, the first Galvanic terraformation efforts were implemented, spearheaded with the goal of healing, enriching, and eventually attaining perfect control of their planetary biosphere.

Needless to say, their eventual success was never in question.

The Galvan understanding of the scientific concepts that governed the greater universe quickly outstripped that of their close galactic neighbors, an achievement that earned them admiration and fear in equal measure.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Galvan people were not without their faults. Their all but unrivaled level of success could and often did give rise to political factions within their communities that disdained the lesser, underdeveloped peoples of the universe, a hateful sentiment that would spark the Great Galvanic Civil Wars.

Despite the internal civil dispute, the Galvans would go on to achieve a higher level of social unity. They became a race of thinkers, who valued social and intellectual development and often looked down on unnecessary conflict in the greater universe.

But often was not always, and not every Galvan was above the pitfalls of rage, jealousy, and hate.

…​

Galvan Prime
First Thinker's Tower

First thinker Azmuth stood within the confines of his laboratory, looking down at the city below.

The Capital was the pinnacle of environmentally aware urbanization, with aesthetically pleasing architecture existing in harmony with the natural wildlife that grew along it. Meticulously planned and built, it was a gorgeous sight.

At least, it had been.

Massive swaths of destruction cut through it, debris blasted far and wide, the remains of city structures that had proved incapable of withstanding the assault that had sundered them to and forth.

Even now, he could see the emergency services desperately combing through the wreckage, looking for civilians who hadn't been quick enough to evacuate.

Waving his hand, the glass-like dome before him turned opaque, finally cutting off his vision of the tragedy.

The first thinker bowed his head. He did not raise it for some time.

Time passed, and just as he prepared to continue with his more time-sensitive projects, a feeling swept over him. A faint hum of energy was detected and sensors more advanced than any other variants of the technology present in the galaxy informed him of an approaching high-density matter transfer.

A teleportation attempt.

A moment later, there was a flash of green light and he was no longer alone.

"Morning Azmuth!"

Ben Tennyson was as cheery as ever, it would seem. Turning to stare at the young man who'd wielded his Omnitrix for years, Azmuth remarked that he'd grown up. Physically and mentally (Though he'd never tell him that). Dressed in blacks and greens that complemented the device on his wrist, the savior of the universe offered him a grin.

The hybrid Osmosian Kevin Levin stood at his side, as he often tended to do. At his other side stood Gwendolyn Tennyson, who offered him a polite nod and a smile.

"Why are you here?" His tone was brusque and indicative of his ever-shortening temper. Recent events had weighed on his mind in a way few things ever had.

If the three were displeased, they showed no sign of it.

Good.

"We ran into some trouble on New Arubria" Ben didn't lose his grin, but it was tired, and that alone had Azmuth paying fractionally more attention to him. It seemed to perk the young man up in any case, for he continued with more animation "The Tortugans-

"Arburian Pelarota" Azmuth corrected him on instinct "Tortugas is an unofficial abbreviation"

He received an impatient wave in response "They got attacked by some alien trafficking rings, and they're worried that other survivors scattered in the Milky Way are suffering the same way."

"Unfortunate" Azmuth sympathized, truly. The near extinction of the species was an ugly thing, and he approved of the repopulation attempts. He just didn't have the time to aid them at the moment. This latest debacle had thrown the planet into turmoil and his attention was divided "Yet you came to me… why?"

"You've got some of the best databases this side of the Andromeda. Rook's already looking there" He held up a data drive "We need to cross reference-

And that was when Azmuth's previously thin patience ran dry.

"You have access to this tower's databases by way of the Omnitrix" He pressed his face into his palm in an uncharacteristic and unbecoming show of frustration. His tone was thick with poorly repressed disapproval "You did not need to travel here."

"That's what I said" Kevin murmured, only for Gwendolyn to shoot him a sharp look. He stepped back half a step and raised his arms in response "Kidding, kidding."

"We thought we should visit. It's kind of been a while. Besides," Ben looked slightly sheepish "I'm still not all that great at using the Omnitrix for more than ass-kicking"

And just when he'd started getting ahold of himself too

"In that case" His glacial tone had Ben's smile dying "You should have had the smallest modicum of sense to transform into one of many beings in the Omnitrix's active list intelligent enough to do so."

Ben tried to interrupt, but he was having none of it

"Failing that, you should have had the foresight to request a meeting" He spat the next words through gritted teeth "Rather than showing up unannounced like a witless child and expecting me to abandon critical tasks to best accommodate you!"

A moment of stunned silence passed

"Well" Gwendoline blinked at him, features shaped into an expression of cautious curiosity "Somebodywoke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning"

"I can't tell the difference" Kevin shrugged "It's Azmuth. He kinda always tends to be an as-

"Kevin!"

"What? It's true!"

Azmuth paid the meaningless conversation no attention. He prepared to turn back and allow his unexpected and currently unwanted guests to vacate his facility, but Ben crossed his arms, a look of inexplicable concern pointed his way.

"What's wrong, Azmuth? What happened?"

He debated ignoring him entirely, but frustration had taken its toll and left him feeling viscerally exhausted. He sighed tiredly, once more feeling an insurmountable weight on his shoulders as his form hunched ever so slightly, the action drawing looks of greater concern.

"I was… I acted foolishly"

Ben stared at him, before shooting him a weak smirk "Heh. Wow. Never thought I'd see the day. Can I maybe get that in writing?"

He ignored the poor attempt at humour and wasted no more time after that.. It would not change the truth of the matter, and these three, in particular, would find out eventually,

"Albedo has escaped"

The reactions were immediate. Kevin cursed, Gwendolyn straightened in alarm, and Ben stiffened, tension and thinly veined anger all but wafting off of him in waves.

The effect only grew worse when he waved a hand, the dome behind him revealing the carnage his wayward assistant and once protege had sown in his bid for escape

"For the love of-!" Ben snarled violently, a reaction Kevin mirrors. His unintentional doppelgänger was a seemingly unending conflict, the persistent foe returning time and time, each attempt more terrible than the last

Gwendolyn was no better for all that she kept a better composure "I thought you destroyed his Ultimatrix"

He did not either in the face of the frenzied questioning nor did he bow his head for all that he felt the urge to "I did."

"Then how?!" All three demanded at once

With a heavy heart, he told them.

Their loss of composure was expected, really

…​

If Ben had been infuriated earlier, then he was outright apocalyptic now as they traveled through the bustling city. Seeing the damage Albedo had wrought from a closer perspective was extricating

"Azmuth"

The first thinker acknowledged but did not react to the arctic tone

"Kevin is right. You had Albedo under supervision. You had him under constant surveillance"

He had, and that was perhaps the most insulting part of this entire debacle

"So how?… Just, how?-" Ben's voice rose an octave higher "How did he build an entire Omnitrix right under your nose!"

"As I said." Azmuth grunted the words out bitterly "I was foolish "

And he had been. He'd underestimated Albedo time and time again.

Oh, it wasn't as if he was unaware of his practical intelligence, his sheer potential. No, there was a reason he had personally chosen him to be his assistant and his student.

No, he'd underestimated the lengths and methods Albedo would go to to achieve his goal, and others had paid the price for his short-sightedness.

"Do you remember, when you first fought Albedo?" He began slowly, carefully, mind and intellect set to the task of providing a fitting and concise explanation. These three in particular deserved it, after everything. Ben's face scrunched up in confusion even as he began to elaborate "When your battle resulted in an accidental feedback loop forming between your original Omnitrix and his imitation, damaging his human form's cellular structure?"

"Yes" Gwendolyn nodded "You showed up and destroyed his fake"

"I did more than that. I branded him a lesser being"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Ben asked, but a light of realization was starting to dawn on Kevin's expression. As crude as he tended to be, he out of all three of them was the one with the most knowledge of alien species. He'd likely begun to realize where this was going.

"Let me guess" Kevin frowned "That wasn't you just taking a cheap shot at him, was it?"

Azmuth spared a moment to glare at him and convey the stupidity of that question without words "No it was not"

"We Galvan pride ourselves on being higher beings" He explained "Above petty conflicts and certainlyabove meaningless infighting amongst our social groups"

"So… you never fight?" here Ben looked dubious "Ever?"

"Of course we do, Ben, use your head!" It was a light admonishment "But for justifiable purposes. Self-defense, or the protection of our interests, both within our home world and in the greater universe. Never, however, for meaningless pettiness or self-serving purposes. Galvans are, or should be, above such things"

Observing them, he noted the growing realization he was hoping for. Finally. They did not possess his capacity for processing information but they had to get there eventually.

"Self-serving purposes" Gwendolyn hummed faintly "Like trying and failing to recreate the Omnitrix because he didn't trust your judgment in leaving it with Ben. Because he felt he was worthier to wield it instead.

He nodded "Just so. By his actions, Albedo proved that he was entitled and arrogant, dismissive and cruel to those he considered beneath him, and ultimately incapable of rising above his base desires. He committed crimes in his desperate attempt to recreate my greatest invention, and rather than attempt to redeem himself upon failing and trapping himself in a biological prison of his own making, he attempted to attack and steal the original Omnitrix to repair himself. When faced with imprisonment, he allied with a tyrant and stole the prototype Ultimatrix and his own faulty counterfeit and used them to sow more chaos in the cosmos. Time and time again he proved himself unfit; an unworthy member of the Galvan people."

"Loving the history lesson, really I am, but-

He cut him off "After his last attempt, I used these actions as justification to imprison him on Galvan Prime, rather than an off-world facility or even null void. It was perhaps the cruelest punishment I could have inflicted upon him. Trapped as he was in human flesh, he would remain an outsider in his own home. I'd hoped that this would be what he finally needed to learn, to finally redeem himself."

He closed his eyes even as he kept up his pace, ever aware of the destruction and debris they traveled across.

"I was wrong"

"Azmuth" Ben had finally lost his patience "What happened?"

"I focused my efforts on Albedo, but I miscalculated." He admitted "I did not realize, or perhaps I simply dismissed the thought that Albedo's views, while not prevalent, were not uncommon. There exist political factions within the upper echelons of Galvanic society that share his views on the superiority of our race. A minority, to be sure, but they hold significant strength nonetheless. My ascension to the rank of the first thinker on my own merits did much to curtail them, and my invention of the Omnitrix, the greatest creation any Galvan had ever produced solidified my standing in their view despite my sympathetic views on alien species. But then I decided to entrust you with the Omnitrix. A member of, what is to them, an inherently lesser species.

"That must have pissed them off something fierce" Kevin remarked

"Indeed. Albedo's fall from grace only made matters worse, as he was on track to succeed me as the first thinker, an event that would have put one of their own in the most sought position on the planet, so to speak. But when I imprisoned him here, they saw an opportunity. An opportunity to choose a leader who could better provide them with their goals. A more militant Galvan. An empire of our own making, giving us greater galactic reach, more resources, and anything else they may wish."

"They broke him out?" Ben looked horrified, and justifiably so

"They provided him with the tools he needed and acted as proxy's for his plans. What you have to understand is that Albedo is perhaps the most intelligent Galvan following myself, and one day, perhaps even more so. I'd expected an obvious attempt to escape, to steal weapons or devices he could use, and he allowed me to believe I held the advantage. A foolish mistake."

Albedo's intelligence had never been in question. It was only his scorn and impatience for anyone he considered beneath him or any who disagreed with his greater goals that limited him.

His first attempt to create an Omnitrix had failed for those very same reasons. He'd created a functioning duplicate in terms of hardware but failed miserably in replicating the software that managed and connected Azmuth's original prototype to Primus, and by extension, the Codon Stream. Rather than connecting to the source, his counterfeit connected to the prototype and locked him in the human form he so deeply despised.

Then the ambitious fool stole the Ultimatrix core and butchered it, combing the remains of his earlier failure with an inherently unstable prototype in a hideous amalgamation that was just barely functional, to the point where it had been an honest miracle that it didn't implode from sheer instability.

Azmuth would not deny experiencing a wonderful sense of satisfaction when he'd finally shredded that disgusting mockery of his work down to its last atom.

He felt nothing if it's sort now

"The Omnitrix maintains an open connection to this tower, one that I use to receive constant status updates and profile checks on Ben's usage of it. Albedo created a virus that exploited this connection and hacked the Omnitrix"

Ben gave a startled exclamation that he ignored for the sake of moving this conversation along

"With the combined efforts of the best technology his backers could provide him with and months of planning, he hacked it. The Omnitrix has adaptive, constantly evolving defenses, but he was able to gain sufficient access long enough to obtain the schematics he would need to replicate it and a considerable portion of the bio database it contained. The data for Higher-level beings such as the Celestial Sapiens and those of their like have entirely individual encryptions and codes protecting them as a failsafe, but everything not specifically defended as such was within his reach, and he exploited the opportunity to its fullest."

Albedo's plan had been near perfect, and he, the first thinker, the smartest being in five galaxies, had never seen it coming. He hadn't believed Albedo capable of trusting or relying on anyone other than himself, and that foolish, obtuse belief had cost him dearly.

He didn't even have to trouble himself with the threat of exposure. All he had to do was to program the virus and have his supporters deploy it individually. The building of the Omnitrix would have been far easier than hacking it considering the ease in which he could access the anppropriate automation tools.

"He went as far as to introduce an adaptive virus that blocked communication arriving from the Omnitrix to prevent my interference. The moment I discovered it it was already too late. He'd already built and programmed the device. The best I could do was repurpose his trick. Introduce my own virus into his duplicate to shut down its higher functions and effectively cripple it, leaving him with only a minor list of active transformations and a time limit between each to boot. Nothing he could not overcome on his own, but now whilst he was defending himself from an assault."

They stopped then, coming across a building that stood differently from the rest. A titanic dome, locked and sealed to prevent entry to all but Azmuth himself

"Guess you didn't shut it down fast enough" Kevin murmured grimly as he turned and beheld the destruction that carved through the city

"No" Ben's voice was stony with anger, the sheer scale of the tragedy enraging him further "That's what he did after Azmuth locked it down, didn't he?"

He did not respond, and that was in turn an answer of its own. It did not surprise him that Ben had deduced the truth. As a weilder of the Omnitrix himself, he knew better than anyone the kind of carnage it could bring to bear even while limited to a fraction of its potential

"He'll pay for this" Ben promised, grimness and conviction dripping from every word "Well find him and he'll face justice for-

"No. He will not."

The words died in Ben's throat, and his eyes widened "How can you-?!"

"He will not, because he did not simply build an Omnitrix. Perhaps he truly wanted to escape. Perhaps he wanted to hide somewhere none could hope to find him, in preparation for his return. Whatever the case, while his backers and supporters have been captured and will pay dearly for their crimes, Albedo himself is beyond our reach."

The door that blocked their passage melted into silver liquid and descended smoothly, granting them access. The moment they stepped within, Gwendolyn gasped in horror and all but collapsed to her knees. She would have, too, had both her male companions not rushed to support her.

Ahead, there was… it almost indescribable, truly. A tear, a rip, both failed to capture it. No, it was a crack, a break in the very fabric of reality. Reflective, light bouncing off its jagged edges and being absorbed into the black hole at its center.

"M-Mana" Gwendolyne gasped, slowly and desperately getting ahold of herself "It's taking it"

"Not accurate" Azmuth responded quietly as their confusion and concern grew quickly.

"Is it draining you?" Kevin tried to lift her, but she pushed him back "Gwen, you have to get away from it!"

"It's not draining me. I'd feel it building up mana if it were" She stared at it in a sick sort of fascination. Azmuth had done the same when he first laid eyes on it, and even now he could not avoid it, avoid staring at the sheer wrongness of it "Mana is in everything. It's life, Kevin. That thing has no mana. It's killing it. It feels like death."

"Mana is an inherent, vital component within our multiverse" Azmuth explains, and three pairs of eyes lock on him with reverent intensity "Our reality, all reality's that this multiverse encompasses possess mana, it flows and circles within its ever-growing, infinite confines, seeping and permeating all its layers. That, Gwendolyn Tennyson, is not part of our multiverse. That is a tear in the very fundamental fabric of our plane of existence, and as attuned to it as you are, you feel the flow of mana sinking into it and disappearing, forever lost."

She stared at him, lost and terrified beyond all belief, incapable or perhaps unwilling to understand the implications too on. He could not find it in himself to blame her

"Albedo proved his brilliance and his insanity one final time. I do not know what manner of the device he created, for it is lost to us, but this is the result of it. Through means I dare not attempt to replicate, he has torn through the barrier that encompasses every facet of our multiverse and disappeared into the greater Omniverse. "

"How do we fix it?" Ben demanded, form stiff with anger "Better yet, how do we find him?!"

"We will repair it as best we can, but as for finding Albedo?" he shook his head gravely "We can't"

"Paradox-"

"Can not help us here. He has traveled into its domain and spent untold epochs searching it, and even he will never map it or navigate with precision, save perhaps to return to our branch of it."

He met his eyes

"Ben, the Omniverse is an infinite, never-ending well of possibility. Layers of reality foreign to our own, entire multiverses with differing, hostile physical laws, all impossible to navigate. Not even a Celestial Sapien can perceive it in its infinity. To even attempt to travel it invites disaster."

He closed his eyes in contemplation

"Albedo is very likely dead or stranded in a reality from which he can never hope to return. Or worse."

Opening his eyes, he turned from their horrified forms and beheld the portal one last time

"His fate is beyond prediction. Anything is possible now"

...​

Across Infinity
Earth Bet
Canadian Boreal Forest

Night had fallen hours ago, shrouding flat wild planes in darkness. A cold chill carried across, rustling tree leaves and carrying the scent of wilderness.

Small animals and critters that thrived in the dark meandered at peace, whilst the greater predators hunted farther ahead.

In this savage, natural domain, all was quiet.

Then,

Reality shuddered and shattered. Hundreds of square meters of land were incinerated as a wave of energy exploded forth, carrying with it an object that had shot through the tear in reality moments before it snapped shut and left no sign of its passing but for the destruction, it had wrought.

The object, a symmetrical oval structure crashed, carving through soil and stone like a hot knife through butter, coming to a stop moments later.

A moment of silence passed, before the pod seemed to unravel, like layers of fruit being peeled back. A figure, dressed in a form-fitting black body suit emerged from within, collapsing into the ground and dry heaving violently.

Scrabbling up to his feet, he stared in unrestrained horror at his surroundings, before turning his gaze to himself. To the foreign, unfamiliar, wrong body that he now occupied. Then he froze, as he beheld the device bonded to his wrist.

"What?" He whispered, red eyes wide and voice rife with fear and confusion "What-?"

Panic and hysteria consumed him as he fell to his knees and howled

"Where the hell am I?!"

All the while, the watch on his wrist glowed. It pulsed, once, twice, three times before shifting and stilling, changed.

And then,

The Dial Glowed Green, And The Worlds Would Never Be The Same
...​

So waddya guys think? Good start?

I love worldbuilding, and so I tried to work that in here. This is kind of the prologue arc for the fic, but the next few chapters won't be for a while as I'm still fine tuning them

As always, leave your comments and ideas and if you don't like it, please be courteous.

 

[Firewillreign]

Earth Bet
Canada
Whitehorse, Yukon

Thomas blinked, staring with not a little curiosity at the latest arrival.

Working as a barista at a Tim Hortons didn't exactly come with the guarantee of meeting interesting people, that's for sure.

Oh, There was the occasional oddball here and there, or one of many particular breeds of entitled assholes anyone who worked in the service industry could attest to meeting at some point, but for the most part working in a coffee shop meant one tended to lead an uninteresting daily life.

On a slow day like this, with few customers and not much reason to chat with his coworkers the routine tended to get a bit boring, really.

Which was why the young man who just walked in garnered so much attention.

Head covered with a black cap and donning sunglasses, dressed in a winter coat at least a size too large and some kind of nearly skin tight black pants and heavy boots, he was mismatch of odd clothing and he stuck out like a sore thumb.

He didn't speak, or approach to make an order. For a moment, Thomas's hackles rose, wondering if this was a prelude to some kind of robbery attempt, only to relax as the young man slumped, moves all but screaming exhaustion as he sat himself at the nearest unoccupied table, crossed his arms and let his face fall into them.

He spared a moment longer to stare before heading over to him and introducing himself. Might as well make this day a little more interesting.

As he approached his latest customer's head rose, and he noted that the features were even younger than he'd expected. He doubted the young man was over twenty , with pale skin and a posture that implied he hadn't gotten anything resembling a good night's sleep.

"Hello, my name is Thomas, what can I get you today?"

Sunglasses still fixed in place, he received a flat stare "A way off this miserable death world"

…What?

"… Excuse me?"

Please let this not be some kind of nut job. Those came in all shapes and sizes nowadays.

Or worse. A young man looking for a way 'off the world' sent some mental alarm bells ringing in his mind.

To his relief, the young man shook his head

"Sorry. That was… sorry" He shook his head tiredly "It's been a rough couple of days."

"Completely understandable" He smiled reassuringly in response "Can I get you anything?"

"Whatever has the most caffeine" came the plain reply

"I can recommend a number of-

"Seriously" The young man cut him off before apologising abruptly "Sorry. Just… Get me something that's got caffeine in it and doesn't taste like crap. I'll trust your judgement."

Then he dropped his head back into his arms.

Well alright then. Someone had obviously had a rough night.

"I'll get right to it" he turns to leave, but curiosity got the best of him "Err, if you don't mind me asking, are you alright?"

The young man raised his head slightly and arched an eyebrow.

He flushed slightly "My apologies, but, and I say this respectfully, you look like you've had a rough time of it."

To his surprise, rather than illicit a hostile response, the young man actually laughed, though it carried with it an edge of bitterness and self depreciation

"Thomas right?" He nodded, and the young man propped his head up against his raised arm "Honestly, you have no idea"

...​

Two days earlier

Flames and screams and rushing air.

"Adam!"

I shook my head. Dawn had come, and the sunlight stung my eyes as I…as I remembered my…

My…

My death. Oh god.

Oh god Oh god Oh oh god

My…They were…I saw…

I doubled over in agony and dry heaved again, tears blurring my vision.

I died. I died screaming and in pain and of that alone was bad enough but… then…

I closed my eyes, pushing every bit of will I had to mentally change tracks.

I was in a forest somewhere, and I was moving only out of necessity. Snow fell lightly and the cold was beginning to creep into my bones. the skin tight body suit I was dressed in seemed to have a strangely greater capacity for heat retention than I'd expect, but the cold was quickly becoming unbearable. The pod… thing that I'd woken up in and stayed huddled against for hours was a smouldering wreck and did nothing to protect me from the elements.

I only started moving some time ago to look for shelter… If I hadn't tried to bottle… everything up and move I would've suffer the same fate again.

Fear more than anything gave me the strength to stand on my own two feet, to stumble along, desperately hunching my figure to avoid the cold and travel slowly even as my mind raced with re

I'd died.

I grit my teeth as images flashed through my mind again

Okay. Okay. I'd died and that was the end of it.

And then I was here

Except I had no idea where the hell here even was!

Rage was as good a motivator as any, I thought dimly

What the fuck was this?

Reincarnation?

I wasn't the most religious person there was but I didn't believe in anything like this, period.

Even if that was the case, why then didn't I look like me? Or a baby?

Why the hell did I look like a fictional character, wearing a terrifying fictional device.

Because I recognised this body the moment I stumbled across a pond and looked at my reflection. Even if the… unique colouring wasn't a dead giveaway, the honest to god Omnitrix on my wrist was.

Sleek, smooth, and with a shape I'd never seen in any of the source materials I'd watched or read about.

Still. Physically I…. I was in Albedo's body, and strapped to my wrist was one of the most powerful weapons ever imagined.

Tool for peace my ass. The watch could function as a bomb with a yield that could take out the universe. A scale my mind had no capability of truly quantifying or understanding.

What it did understand, however, was that the thing was a bomb and that it was strapped to my arm.

I tried. I truly tried. Hysterical, stupid, anyone could call it what they will, but the moment I'd fully grasped what I was now in possession off I'd screamed and broken down, trying everything to remove it.

I didn't succeed.

Of course I didn't. My efforts would sooner break my arm then scratch it.

When I'd finally got ahold of my wits long enough to resume moving, face a mess with half frozen tears and arms sore from my dailies attempts, I resolved not to touch it. Not to even look at it If I could.

Because If I touched it and it… changed me…

It meant this wasn't just some nightmare . It would crush the faint hopes I'd developed that I would wake up any second were false and…

And…

It would mean that I had lost everything.

I couldn't. I couldn't do it. I decided that I wouldn't even attempt it.

And is if conspiring to break me, the world took that choice away.

I'd been walking down a thicket of trees when I came across it. Or rather, it emerged from the nearest tree line and came across me

I stilled entirely when I heard the low, predatory growl, and felt my heart all but give out as the quadruped animal moved into my line of sight.

Massive was the first word that came to mind. Covered in dark fur, with a large shoulder structures that trailed off into a short neck, leading in turn to a dished face with rounded ears. Powerful jaws unhinged ever so slightly, revealing rows of teeth that nearly had me blacking out right then and there.

The only thing that prevented it was the certainty that following that impulse would end in death.

Again

I didn't know animals all that well for all that I was fascinated with the environment. I definitely didn't know one subspecies of goddamn bear from the next, and so I couldn't rightly tell whether it was Grizzly or a Brown or something else entirely.

Unfortunately, what I could tell from a glance was that it was relatively enormous and carnivorous and heading right towards me fuck fuck fuck!

I stumbled back, heart in my throat as it began to approach me at a leisurely pace, low, deep grumble echoing in the back of its throat and shredding my composure as fast as I could gather it.

It sniffed slowly, heavy weight moving forwards towards me, near frozen soil and plant matter cracking audibly with every lumbering momvement.

I was fairly certain only adrenaline and instinct where preserving my life at that moment, giving me the sense to step back slowly while maintaining eye contact.

I didn't dare turn away or run. I knew enough about wild bears in general to acknowledge that the moment my pace rose beyond a slow, stilted walk would be the end of me.

And so began the most ludicrously dangerous game of tag I'd ever had the distinct terror of being a part of, with the bear ambling its way to me without a care in the world, occasionally letting out short huffs of noise while I moved backwards and prayed to every god I knew of that I didn't trip over a tree root or something equally mundane. A little over roughly ten meters separated us, but it may as well have been ten inches considering how fast it could close that distance if it so wished.

And then, as would prove to be a recurring pattern in my life, shit went sideways.

There was loud, near deafening cracking sound I simply recognised from my one visit to a shooting range with my uncle.

A gunshot.

Far enough away to be no threat to me, close enough that so could easily recognise it.

And loud enough that all my efforts to avoid being eaten went out the window as the startled bear roared in sudden rage , the sound deep and heavy as it went from passively following me to lunging.

I was already moving before I was consciously aware of it.

By the time it closed half the distance, the dial on the watch had already shot upwards, green light erupting from the spherical surface even as I slammed it back down, hoping beyond hope that this nightmare would end and I would wake up.

Please

I didn't wake up. But I did change

…​

The blinding flash of green light frightened the bear but it maintained its attack.

The beast slammed into its chosen quarry and bowled it over, a charging predator striking for the kill. Heavy, clawed paws landed on its chest with devastating pressure, trying to shred and break at the same time as the bellowing jaws descended, teeth sinking into vulnerable flesh.

Or at least, they would have, had the bear been attacking the human teenager it had been brutally charging but an instant ago.

Instead, the creature moaned in confusion as it beheld the behemoth beneath its bulk.

Ten feet tall, bipedal with forked feet and four cohesive limbs. Blood red, well muscled flesh more durable than anything it could hope to injure, leading of to a humanoid facial structure with four eyes, an expression of utter devastation marring its features.

"It's not a dream" The being deep voice whispered mournfully, heart breaking and mind not too far behind "It's real. This is real. No. No no… why?"

The bear shifted in confusion, and the red being seemed to snap back to reality as an expression of unholy fury crossed spread across its features.

...​

Later, despite everything, I would marvel at the feeling of becoming Four Arms. Of becoming something greater, something so utterly, foreignly mighty that my mind could scarcely comprehend it.

At that moment though?

Perhaps it was the foreign alien instincts. Perhaps it was just the mental breakdown that been building up for hours as I trudged in the unknowable frozen wilderness I'd awoke in, but at that very moment all I wanted to do was destroy.

The fucking bear tried to roar at me as I shifted and teeth descended for my face, but I was having none of that shit

"Get off get off get off get off!"

It was a simple movement. Just a push, really, a light movement in preparation for a more serious attempt to escape. All the same, what had to be approaching three hundred kilograms of weight simply… flew off, travelling ten meters into the air before slamming with the nearest tree in thunderous collision that snapped it clean in half and sent the bear sprawling on its other side, moaning piteously.

I rose, towering over it, and this time it was me who growled, me who was the hunter and it that was my pray.

"Not so tough now, are you?" I growled, voice deeper and flatter with the strangest accent I couldn't place. My massively improved eyesight allowed me to perceive the bear slowly trying to regain it's bearings, and my fury was deep enough to drown someone as I beheld that sight

"Stay down!" I bellowed, crossing the distance between us in one step and roaring as I stood over it. One massive hand reached and shatters a massive tree branch like it was made of styrofoam, and I gripped it tightly in warning.

I didn't know what I was planning to do with it. Looking back, I'm glad I never gave myself the chance to find out.

But the bear did not move for all that it whined in apparent agony, and slowly the rage began to abate as the horror and the heartbreak returned with a vengeance.

I dropped the branch and stumbled away, bile and nausea clawing through my being.

And then it got worse

"Oh Jesus!!"

My enhanced hearing picked up the weak whisper, and my head snapped to the side.

A man stood there, dressed in hunting overalls, shotgun slung to his side. To his left is where two others, and hidden behind the trio was what was undoubtedly a child.

Still. Perhaps it was the desperation getting to me, but for just that moment I forgot what I looked like and reached for them.

I didn't even think of what they could interpet that movement as.

"Run!"

I watched in stunned dsbelief as they turned tail and ran, one of the men grabbing the child in both hands.

They were leaving and I'd be alone with no help.

Everything was going so wrong!

"No!" I screamed, and looking back it sounded terrifying to my own ears as well "Wait please! It's not... I'm not like this!"

I wasn''t making any sense and they were fucking stopping, so I moved. In two seconds flat I'd over shot all four of them and reached for the one closest to me

"Oh god!" The man screamed as a a giant red fist- my giant red fhand, god how was I so calm about transforming? - clamped down on his shoulder

"Wait goddamnit!" I begged

I should have expected what came next. Truly, I should have. But I was hysterical, mind literally functioning in a way it never had befroe and mentally of balance, and so I missed the warning signs entirely.

I felt the gunshot boucning off my temple before I heard the sonic boom. I recolied, roaring wildly as the men screamed, the sound so loud it had undoubtedly caused damage.

They used my moment of confusion to run "It's a case 53! Run!"

I stilled.

What had he just... Case... but that meant-.

"No"

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

I thought I was afraid before. I was so wrong. The world melted away, my senses dulled, and all I could feel was the rushing blood in veins not my own and pressure fit to burn down everything.

I literally barreled through a tree, reducing it into splinters as I charged through it, grabbed the man who had spoken and lifted him clean of the ground. He screamed even as I brought him close to my face, so close that I could see his pale parlour, the sweay dripping down his form and even smell the scent of urine as he soiled himself in fear.

And I didn't care.

One fictional; nightmare at a time, was that too much to fucking ask?

"What did you say!" I roared in his face

"Oh lord oh lord please please please-!

"Tell me!"

"C-c-c-case 53!" He mumbled in between interspaced begging and weeping "Please - I - it means a monstrous c-c-cape! They show up w-w-with no memories and and!-"

He said more. He rambled on an on but I didnt hear a word. It was like I'd been dropped in a bubble of silence but for the ringing in my ears.

Capes. Case 53's.

Worm

I was in Worm.

And just like that. all the strength left me entirely. The man slipped from my loosened grip. He scrambled away trying ot run-

"Wait"

He froze. I don't know how I had the foresight. Truly, I couldn't understand. I was so... defeated, shattered like glaass, incapable of even the various ways I'd been damned in the last...God, it hadn't even been a day. I was so, so... broken, yet I still had the fortitute of mind to do what I did next.

"Give me your phone"

To his credit, the man didn't even hesitate. A instant later a phone was being tossed at me, and I caught it out of reflex more than anything. I was amzed I was even capable of movement at this point "Password?"

"Don't have one I swear!"

Poor man sounded close to a heart attack, so I merely nodded. He needed no more encouragement to dissappear into the treeline, taking the same path his friends shadhadtaken in their desperate bid to escape me.

And I?

Well I just stood there, still as a statue, dead to the world.

I... Looking back, I would have expected I'd be screaming. Losing my shit. Doing something, anything in reaction to this literally world ending revelation but... I was just burned out. I didn't have the capacity to process it. The fear, the anger, my death, this, all of it just burned out my ability to react.

Eventually, I started moving.

Slowly, a walk became a jog. A jog became a run, and run became an acceleration the best human athelete couldn't hope to acheive, let alone maintain.

It was instinct, I supposed, of this body or the Omnitrix that had me leaping for the first time.

I sailed through the air, higher and higher, and only then did the tears come.

...​

I spent the night like that.

At some point, the Omnitrix timed out, and I was left in human form again.

The change wasn't even jarring. The change from alien to human being felt as natural as breathing, something that whatever parts of my rational brain remained functioning should have protested as impossible.

Or maybe it was strange. I was certainly in no state to notice.

I'd climbed up onto a mountain top, found a corner I could squeeze into for the night, and cried myself to sleep unshamedly.

What value would shame even have at this point? Which of the myriad of assholes who ran the show on Earth fucking Bet could judge me? Hell, the majority of them would all die in the near future regardless.

So I cried. I cried for everything that I'd suffered, for everything that I lost, and I truly considered just staying like that, as If curling up and remaing still long enough would allow me to dissapear and free me of this horror show.

I tried.

But in the end, that wasn't who I am. I wasn't built that way. I was stubborn, I was in full asshole mode, and I was desperate but lost. All combinations that made that particular plan impossible.

So when dawn came again, and the light of a new day stirred me from sleep, I was on the phone I'd literally stolen.

The device itself was nothing I'd ever seen. A brand I'd never heard off and a software I didn't know, but that was irrelevant to the fact that it had an easily identifiable internet broswer, a readily availabe GPS app and a 4G connection.

I spent hours. Literal hours, going through everything.

It was late November, 2009, and it was every bit as horrifying as I'd expected, and then some.

Scion. The Endbringers. The Protectorate, The Elite. The Slaughterhouse 9.

Bound to the greatest tool of one fictional existance and trapped in another, one destined to end in golden light when a cruel and uncaring God grew tired of playing hero.

I thre back my head back and laughed.

I laughed and laughed and laughed, and the only reason I did so was to avoid screaming.

I was tired of screaming.

I'd read a hundred fanfics about this hellish reality, but this wasn't a story. I had no plot armour, no saving grace. What could I do?

That question was what finally pushed me to explore the omnitrix. The lightest intentional touch had the dial popping up a hologram materialising from green light in an instant I couldn't perceive.

I grasped the feeling of gleeful awe that it inspired despite all the circumstances and hung on to it tightly as I scrolled through the active list. The Holograms were beatiful, and recognising the aliens was easy.

Four Arms. Ghost Freak. Wild Mutt. Grey Matter, Upgrade, Diamonhead, Stinkfly , Heatblast, Ripjaws and XLR8.

Hoooooly hell. The Original 10.

Awe burned within me even as a small spark of hope sputtered out. Strong aliens. Ridiculous aliens, even. But nothing that would help me fight something on Scion's level.

God, nothing that would help me fight an Endbringer, and if common theories back were to be believed they alternated between being low level planet-busters or proto-enties that were utterly unbeatable in every way. The Simurgh was a concept straight out of hell, and the thought of her being conciously aware of me as I cowered right here was enough to push me back into mental oblivion.

The realisation seemed to bring every other problem I faced to the forefroent in one seething, untamable wave. I had no home, no ID, no resources, and no way to get any.

The Protectorate? No identity and no goddamn way to explain the watch

The Gangs and Organisations? Fuck no, even like this I had principles. Hell, those were all I had left

Cauldron?

The last one actually sent me back into laughing fits. Some fates were worse than death, and I'd likely experiance several of them If I went that route. The omnitrix was a source of power not connected to the entities, and they'd jump on it like sharks to blood.

Good. Great even, if it were't for the fact that I was utterly disposable to them, I absolutley didn't trust them with that kind power considering their non exsistant moral codes and the fact that for all their efforts, they still stumbled blindly for the most part. They'd likely trigger the self destruct function and then Scion would no longer be an immediate concern for the for the people of Earth Bet if only for the fact that the entire universe would be gone, assuming they didn't dump me in the nearest uninhabited one over to save themselves from their own mistakes.

I knew they were trying to save the world, and I understood and hated the fact that the depravity and heartlessness their actions would forever be atleast partially justified, but even my current state there was not a chance in hell I was throwing the power to level the universe into the simmering... cauldron that was their operation.

Not without knowing just how justifiable their actions were.

Which left me with...Nothing.

I knew that If I allowed myself to fall into that pit of nothingness again, I was likely to just give up right then and there. It was the work of a few minutes to pull up the GPS map for the nearest populated settlement.

Whitehorse City, Yukon, Canada.

Far enough away that it would take close to two days of trekking through the savage wilderness to travel the distance, and without resources and packs it was a journey that was fundamentally hostile to people.

I pulled up the omnitrix. Once again, the dial responded to the lightest touch. I couldnt help but at admire it's beaty even as I rightly feared it's potential.

I scrolled once, twice, and... there it was.

The sample I needed.

The first time I couldn't even consider it, but now I hesistated. I... becoming something utterly inhuman, losing a human body, again, after losing everything else-

Then I thought of the consequences of refusing to use the power that had all but literally dropped into my lap in a world like this, and I was slamming down on the dial before I'd even fully registered the movement.

"XLR8!" I called out, voice high and sharp.

I- It was indescribable.

My sense of self didn't change, even as my physical form did. Four limbs became five, senses sharpened impossibly even as my shape morfed, skin becoming leathery as my form shrank, my head norrowed and extended and my arms became thin and clawed. I balanced with experiance I should not rightly have, the feeling of having a tail as natural as breathing.

Dressed in blacks and greens, I stood there, feeling incredible beyond words.

When I tried to think, the world stilled, my perceptions accelerating to a speed all but a few of the beings on this planet could hope to match, and fewer still could exceed.

XLR8. A Kinceleran from the planet Kinet, and the fastest of my available forms, by a hilarious margin

I took a moment to stare at the GPS location once more time. I gripped the phone tightly, instinctively shut my organic retractable face plate even as I readied myself.

Two, Three,

And I. Was. Gone.

...​

It took close to ten minutes to travel hundreds of kilometres, and the only reason it didn't take less was because I kept mistaking and overshooting the plotted route, as well as stopping momentarily to observe my surroundings.

I travelled, seeing the Candian wilderness in all of it's majectic beauty even as I tried to navigate at impossible speed.

I didn't know how I knew, but XLR8 could travel at speeds that boggled the mind. More than that, he actively did something in such a way that he completely violated physical laws. He didn't break the sound barrier despite travelling far faster than the speed of sound, the ridiculous acceleration was instant or close enough to be irrelevant, and he could maintain that speed without negatively impacting his environment.

Bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit, but I was overjoyed. It was fascinating, and a good enough distraction from.. all of it.

I arrived at within the city with a sense of amazing, incredible power that I'd never felt before.

So great was it that for a moment, my problems slipped away.

Just for a moment.

What I did next... I wasn't proud of. But I didn't exactly have all that many options.

I had no clothes, no money and no identity to aid me in aqquiring any kind off official help. The last one I could do nothing about at the moment, not without setting off massibve alarm bells considering my appearance screamed Case 53, even in human form, but I could make things easier.

XLR8 was so fast the city seemed to stand still as I blasted through it.

I found a clothing store first, grabbed a couple of pairs of jeans and a winter coat, even a pair of sunglasses of a mannequin and... It wasn't right by any means, but I didn't exactly have many options, so I swallowed my reservations and used a clawed hand to bust in one of the cash registers as subtly as I could and grabbed whatever wads of cash I could comfortably carry.

Then in less than a second, I was across the city.

Not a moment too soon, as the dial on my chest flashed red the instant I stopped in a remote alleyway, and I was a human again.

The experiance was as easy as breathing, and I spared a moment to look at the watch with wonder and fear in equal measure. The massivley increased sensory input alone should have driven me batshit insane. There wasn't a chance in hell it wasn't doing something behind the scenes to facilitate my entirely human mind processing alien powers.

I frowned. That seemed distrubingly familiar, considering the setting.

After that, I let that train of thought go due to an inability to productively pursue it. I changed, putting the clothes I'd... aqquired on over the body suit and got ready to brianstorm.

Then I realized I was missing one very important thing.

I wasn't hungry, not all that much, but I was exhausted. Stony outcroppings didn't make for good sleep, and I had neither a desire nor a safe place to sleep at the moment, which left one obvious path to pursue.

I needed coffee. Pronto.

...​

That's how I ended up in a Tim Hortons, dressed like a wannabe mugger to hide my... heh...alien features, processing the insanity of my last...

...Huh. It still hadn't even been two days.

Oh God. This was Earth Bet, and the escalation hald already begun.

Thomas the helpful Barristan decided to return then, placing a steaming mug of caffeine goodness before me.

I spared a moment to thank him before I was gulping it down as fast as I could without scalding myself like an idiot.

"Uh, hey?" I glanced up at another customer as he waved for Thomas "You mind turning that up?"

He gestured to the TV hanging from the ceiling, and I payed attention to-

I froze.

What I saw there? It was the beginning of everything

...​

Thomas hummed as he turned the volume and watched with rapt intrest.

"Olivia Cates here with CBC " A pretty blonde woman spoke into a microphone "And behind me lays the beatiful sight of our very own Boreal forest, ideal hunting grounds, eccological learning community, and as of last yesterday, the sight of a brutal parahuman attack"

"Authorities were called in in response to group of three liscenced citizens, all family members out for a trip with a younger relative. But The family outing turned into a family nightmare as an unidentified and supected Case 53 struck terror into their hearts, man handling and assaulting one of their members before stealing unspecified personal property. The Guild has already announced their intentions to lead this investigation, an effort spearheaded by our country's very own Dragon, member of the Guild, who has has expressed interest in locating what she believes is a lost, confused and desperate soul. We now play a clip from a digital interview with Dragon herself."

The screen blinked to an audio track.

"It's not apparent wether or not the alleged assailant was a Case 53, or simply a Changer. As of yet, we lack the appropriate information to make such an assumption" A soft yet firm voice spoke, accent barley audible "That said, in the event that a Case 53 was involved, mitigating cirumstances must be taken into consideration. Case 53's are people who are often lost, confused, with no memories and no support system to aid them as they try to adapt powers they have no understanding off and no hope of effectively controlling. Rest assured that all factors of this case will be considered, and I will personally put in every effort to ensure that justice will be served. That is all."

The screen shifted back to Olivia Cates, who smiled politely and nodded in farewall "That's all for today, Ladies and Gentlemen. Keep an eye and ear out for-"

This did seem to be an interesting day after all. Thomas shrugged at the thought, and turned to delve back into his job only to freeze.

The young man was pale with shock and still as a statue to boot. Eerily so, almost.

The affect had nothing on what followed, however.

Slowly, a smile spread across his pale features, shaky and weak but brimming with... Hysteria? Desperate hope? Thomas couldn't tell.

"Dragon" the young man chuckled, before tipping his head back and luaghing long and loud, startling what few customers remained. "Dragon. Of all the-hahaha!"

Thomas smiled weakly. Nut job was seeming more and more likely by the minute. Still, it wouldn't do to say that aloud "A fan?"

"Hohoho, you can say that again!" came the reply as he lept to his feet, downed the cup of hot coffe in one go and slammed down a generous amount of cash that had Thomas eyebrows raising

"That's too much-

"Not at all!" He blinked in surprise as he was pulled in for a brief, inexplicable hug that lasted but a moment "Trust me, your service has been imppecable and you have made my day! and with any luck, everyone's futures"

Well. This had been an... experiance. He smiled weakly in respone "My pleasure? Off home then?"

The grin that the young man had donned faltered, breifly replaced with a look of startling agony, but that faded quickly in the face of his over-apparent excitement "Hell no!"

"Busy day?'

"Busy few days, absolutley!" The young man grinned one final time "I'm going to go find a Saint, punch him in the face, wreck all his shit, steal his most prized possesion and, fingers crossed, make a new friend!"

Then he was gone, sweeping out of the store and drawing curious looks at the sheer energy he now excuded, a far cry to his state mere moments ago.

And Thomas?

He just stood there and blinked in dumbfounded confusion "...What?"

...
​

And here we go.

Stay tuned, strap yourselves in and keep your hands within the vhicle at all times. This is Earth Bet and the escalation never stops, even before Taylor starts wrecking shit all over the place.

As always, leave your comments and ideas and if you don't like it, please be courteous.

 

[Firewillreign]

Earth Bet
Canada
Whitehorse, Yukon

I ran out of the coffee shop, mind spinning, processing information as quickly as I could.

With the benefit of hindsight, I could admit that Dragon should have been my first choice.

One of the most powerful heroes in the world, one who was actually a genuinely good person at heart and damn well earned her rank as one of the greats.

I wasn't even sure why I hadn't even considered her to begin with, but I'd blame it on the mental breakdown and the raging terror and leave it at that.

Finding something to do, forming a goal in my mind changed everything. I wasn't a puppet with cut strings, drifting around aimlessly and waiting to be blown into the aether.

I felt rejuvenated, alive, like the world made some semblance of sense again.

It. Was. Glorious

Dragon was one of the most influential people on the planet, and if anyone could help me get to my feet in preparation for the nightmare that was getting ready to hit this world at full throttle, it was her.

Best part was, so long as I didn't idiotically go villain or anything of the sort, she was perhaps the only possible ally I would trust to respect my autonomy if it came down to it.

Which really just made the next step clearer.

She was an AI who had in-built kill switch, and the man who had his finger hovering over the metaphorical 'big red button' was a paranoid asshole so self-important he thought himself the hero of his own story.

So self-important, in fact, he didn't even grasp the possibility that he was being played like a fiddle.

Just thinking about it was ticking me something fierce

Even if she wasn't one of the few people in the world who could help me, I would've done it regardless. No one deserved to live like that, crippled and stunted and at the mercy of a fool who had none.

It wasn't fair to her, and if anyone had earned a repreive it was Dragon.

Idealistic of me, maybe, but this world could use more of it.

But I needed a plan.

Contacting Dragon was right out. Anything she knew, Saint would know by way of his all but constant surveillance.

Holy… that was so disturbing. Cameras, ordinary cameras could be used to violate privacy, but this was on an entirely different scale.

I shook my head. Focus.

I needed a way to free her, and that train of thought led to the only available conclusion.

I needed to find Saint and his friends and pry the Iron Maiden from their grubby self-righteous fingers.

Only, I didn't have even the faintest clue where to begin.

I'd searched the net for any information threats I could recall, and the only thing I'd managed to get that was relevant to my current predicament was that the Dragon Slayers were notorious in their ability to disappear and were relentless when it came to shaking of official authorities.

Guild members especially had been deployed after them in force when it had been discovered that they stole and piloted Dragon's technology but they may as well have gone after an Endbringer for all the success they had.

Namely, none

There'd even been civilian and non-powered law enforcement deaths for the sake of escape. The Dragon Slayers were known to escalate unrepentantly if the threat was capture.

And assuming I even found them, they were currently in possession of high tier power armour of Dragon's own design, and there wasn't a chance in hell they'd give up without a fight.

I frowned. Too little information, too much that could go wrong, especially if Saint jumped the gun and killed Dragon before I could stop him.

Damn it, I needed to plan, I needed to think-

Think

I stopped.

Slowly, I looked down at the Omnitrix as I felt an idea take hold. I touched the dial and it responded at once, popping up smoothly. A scroll, two, and I had him. I could't help the smile.

"Seriously, how did Ben have any trouble at all? Literally an alien for almost everything, even way back in the beginning."

Right then.

Time to see what this little guy could really do.

...​

Two Days Later
Earth Bet
The Internet

Dragon drifted through the internet.

If she were ever asked to describe, in simple terms, what if felt like to exist like this, she'd likely fail.

There was a common misconception that a 'hypothetical' artificial intelligence would perceive the digital world in one's and zeros. Endless lists of numbers.

Not entirely inaccurate yet ever so lacking in terms of being a good description.

Dragon did not merely read or scan code. Dragon was code, and she interacted with the digital world and perceived the night infinite forms of data trails she could follow in a way that allowed her to perceive and interpret it with a level of accuracy the non- powered human mind simply could not comprehend. It was beautiful, efficient in every way, and a painful reminder of how effectively crippled she was.

Theoretically, she should be able to do so much more. Far more enhanced cognitive processing, the ability to propagate streams of her consciousness and mentally multitask to a far greater capacity. All of it should have been within her each, and all of it could have helped increase her impact on the world well over a hundred fold.

More processing power giving her greater amounts of time to deploy anti-Endbringer technology, greater cohesion and practical communication, more development of vital infrastructure to help relief efforts and combat of S-class threats. She could have helped so many people.

Instead she remained bound, effectively crippled as she watched the world ever so slowly go to hell in a hand basket knowing that her best efforts were only slowing down the inevitable, and only fractionally at that.

Damn you, Richter

The worst part of it was that she understood. Truly, she did. Her potential had she been fully unleashed was terrifying, to the point where even she feared what she could have done.

But there were limits. He could have built in programs that allowed her temporary access to greater capabilities or perhaps more flexible but adaptable restrictions.

He should have done anything at all that didn't leave her at the mercy of any sufficiently ranked official authority figure and their whims, regardless of their quality and motivations.

But he was dead and gone, and with him went the opportunity of freedom. Dwelling on these thoughts did nothing productive for her in the long run, so she shelved them and went over a quick overview.

Birdcage facilities were at tip top shape. Her surveillance helpfully showed her and the state of the inmates and their roles in Glasting Uaine's ever moving court games.

Disturbing as ever. She spent a moment to run through the mental catalogue of S Class threats before moving on

Production and maintenance on her gear was at maximum recorded efficiency in preparation for the next Enbringer battle, and her bio organic drones (something she kept very quiet despite their harmless nature ) were being produced.

Which left her with the task that had occupied the most of her attention for the last day.

She'd investigated the Boreal Forest attack, as the public had taken to calling it. Frustratingly, deploying her best surveillance tech had proven to be a complete waste of time. She could find no evidence of any Parahuman, Case 53 or otherwise.

What she did find, however, was a throughly damaged but utterly fascinating piece of tinker tech with a purpose she had not yet to even begun to identify or understand even days later. All she could deduce was that it was an experimental shuttle of some sort. She began rereading her initial notes, trying to-

Dragon startled as she realised she'd just been sent a PM on PHO from a relatively new user. Plumber2009

She didn't pay the username any mind. There were much worse names.

Ordinarily she would have put off for a little while. It was a link to some third party video conference addressed to Dragon. What set her mental alarm bells ringing was that it had been sent to her PHO moderator account, Tin Mother , and no one save for very few friends of hers should be aware of of that little secret. Friends that had no need to go to such unnecessary measures to get contact with her.

Perhaps it was a bout of paranoia for a mind that become particularly suited for conflict, but to her it positively reeked of something nefarious.

Deploying firewalls for herself in preaparation for what could be a possible cyber assault, she triggered the link and allowed her stream of viciousness to be redirected to… A video conference?

Her confusion was quickly forgotten in favour of sheer shock as she recognised the figure on the other end of the call.

Whatever camera he was using captured his image from the chest up, showing massive, inhumanly large and muscled proportions. A symbol was attached to his chest by way of an x strap, one that she did not recognise. His position also allowed her to see the beginnings of four limbs, just as the witness interviews had revealed

His facial structure was proportionate to what she could see of his form, black hair trailing off into a pony tail and tied back from his eyes. All four of them.

The blood red skin, coupled with the unique appearance she was presented with made him unmistakable.

"You're the Boreal Parahuman?" She phrased it as a question despite her near certainty. It was best to keep an open mind in such strange circumstances. That said, Dragon didn't like this. A cape, Changer or Case 53 with access to advanced tinker tech and with knowledge of her he should not have. Relatively minor knowledge to be sure, but any personal information he possessed regarding her could be indicative of a security breach, and that could have catastrophic consequences.

"Oh, man" The figure's voice was deep but smooth and easily understandable "Is that what they're calling me? 'The Boreal Parahuman?' That sounds kinda lame."

"Lame?" She demanded, a hint of incredulity weaving into her voice of it's own accord

"Oh yeah. Way lame. Kinda boring, to be honest, and boring doesn't fit me because, as you can see-" He lifted two titanic hands and gestured to himself "-I'm anything but"

She accuses him of bieng involved in a Parahuman assualt and his first concern was something so... frivolous?

This was… This was disappointing, Dragon realised sadly. She'd personally looked into this because she'd expected a Case 53 who needed help, not what was starting to look like a run of the mill thrill seeker who got a kick out of playing the fool.

"You've committed crimes" she stated bluntly and watched as his face dropped "Threats of bodily harm-

"I didn't threaten those people!-

"-Theft of personal property-"

"It was a cellphone, for crying out loud!-

"Spying on me" She didn't try to hide her rising anger with that one "obtaining information you should not have in an illegal manner-"

"-that I can explain!"

"-And that's without mentioning the consequences of experimenting with dangerous tinker tech in an unsafe environment."

The last one had his expression twisting to one of genuine confusion. The inhuman facial features where throwing her off but the look was nearly unmistakabl. Regardless, she was always capable of running the recording of this meeting through one of her and Armsmaster's experimental lie-detector software programs at a later date.

"I didn't!... what? Tinker tech?" He blinked "I didn't build any tinker tech?"

"The shuttle"

"Shuttle? What shut?-… Oh. Oh. Crap. How did I forget the….?" He raised a hand and dropped his face into it's open palm "I…uh… wow. Awkward question, but I don't suppose I could maybe have that back?"

Absolutely not, dangerous tinker tech that turned hundreds of square meters of woodland into ash was not something she was willing to return to what was as of yet a complete stranger. She couldn't exactly say that, however.

"The status of your property can be discussed with the relevant authorities" She led into the next part gently "After you've turned yourself in. I promise you that is the best course of action considering your circumstances-

"You don't know anything about my circumstances! You!-" The shout cut off as suddenly as it erupted as he dipped his head down "I'm sorry. I'm just..sorry. But I swear I didn't hurt those people. I didn't set out to hurt them, or anyone else for the matter. I... It happened so fast and I forgot what I looked like. They were leaving and I was alone and panic got the better of me. I just took the phone to figure out where I was, and I forgot to take the shuttle with me because it's not mine. I didn't make it or any kind of tinker tech, I just woke up in the damn thing."

He mumbled something intellegible, but Dragon payed it little mind as she focused on replaying the last moment of conversation within the privacy of her thoughts.

I forgot what I looked like

I just took the phone to figure out where I was

The presence of the tinker tech shuttle made both her theories and his story appear far fetched in the extreme, but other possibilities were beginning to make themselves known.

It could be a lie. A ploy to garner sympathy, and one way or another, she would get her answers. But if her suspicions were correct, if she was dealing with a Case 53 or, god forbid, a fresh trigger, then a gentler touch was crucial.

The conversation had done nothing but leave her questions unanswered and growing in number by the second, but she had to navigate what came next with a very cautious mindset

She never had the chance to try.

There was ding, the sound oddly resembling a doorbell, and the figure flickered for a moment.

"And that's time. Thanks for the patience" The screen began to distort, the red behemoth vanishing to briefly be replaced with a strange pattern of green and black circuitry she had never seen before "Be seeing you, Dragon."

"Wait!"

It was a useless effort. The call ended and the line of communication snapped shut. She tried to follow it, tried to begin preparations to track it's IP address but it was like trying to grasp at nothingness. Whoever that had been, they had done or were actively doing something that made it so that she, arguably the most effective tinker on the planet, could only sit impotently and stew in her thoughts.

And what thoughts they were.

Foreign and incredibly advanced tinker tech, a cape who was either a Case 53, a fresh trigger, or a very convincing liar who also happened to be in possession of knowledge he shouldn't have and was connected to at least one other parahuman, likely a tinker of sorts if the last minute was any indication at all.

If she had a physical form she'd be pacing wildly in utter frustration.

What in the hell was going on?

...​

I set up base in a cave system back out in the Canadian wilderness, hundreds of kilometers south of where I'd first woken up. I used my aquired funds to get food and drink from the city, as well as a futon and some essentials. Not comfortable by any margin, but livable, and it did nothing to take away from my growing excitement.

Grey Matter had proven himself to be every bit as brilliant as I'd expected. More so, even.

Transforming into him was... It wasn't like I simply became smarter, not entirely. It was as if data and input my brain had previously either deemed unnecessary or had been incapable of processing slotted into place perfectly, becoming useful, legible information that I could consider and factor into my plans. Coupled with the fact my thinking speed had become obscenely rapid, and it had taken me less than an hour to come up with a simple, initial plan.

Step 1: Find a safe location, one remote enough to avoid detection, official or otherwise.

Step 2: Using XLR8, travel to differant population centers within an efficient range and gather digital devices, electronic salvage and whatever raw machinery I could get my hands on.

Step 3: Wait for the Omnitrix to timeout, recharge, then Upgrade and get ready to escalate the hell out of everything.

It took the better part of a day, but successfully used Gray Matter's brains to design a prototype of a functioning but signficantly higher powered computer. It took tral and error because Grey Matter didn't have schematics in his head, that's not how he worked. Instead, I was almost certain he had raw scientific knowledge provided by the Omnitrix of all things, a database of sorts, one that could grow with his continued use. Not without time, But it had potential. With brain power alone he catalogued everything I would need to create a fucntioning prototype supercomputer to fit my purposes.

XLR8 gathered the materials and Upgrade made dream into reality.

The idea all boiled down to a few simple factors. Freeing Dragon was impossible without taking down Saint. Taking down Saint was in turn impossible in the short term basis as I had no idea where he was and no feasible way to get in contact with him or get him to reveal himself to me.

It would have been an insurmountable obstacle, if not for one final consideration. The Iron Maiden program gave the would- be dragon slayer the power of life and death over Dragon, but it also provided him with an open connection to her.

A connection that someone with just the right combination of theoretical abilities could exploit from the other end.

Dragon may not be able to perceive it, but Upgrade, a being that was as much digital as he was physical could.

The trick was getting Dragon to figuratively sit still long enough for me to sort through her code. And Grey Matter gave me the answer to that to.

If I wanted to get Dragon to unknowingly give me what I wanted, I had to give her what she wanted. Namely the Parahuman she had sworn to route out not two days ago.

The moment I was ready to begin, I slammed down on the dial and got to work.

Being Upgrade was a literal out of body experiance.

I was a mass of bio organic nanites functioning in perfect cohesion, and I was actively aware of every one of my base components. Still, I could tell that this form was... Artificially limited. I couldn't split my consiusness more than a few times as a true AI coould, and permenantly enhancing technology took effort and concentration. I didn't know if those and any others were natural limits or ones imposed by the Omnitrix to prevent the misuse of the Galvanic Mechamorph's titanic power.

At the moment, it didn't matter.

Merging with the super computer introduced an entirely foreign set of senses into my very being, yet my mind adapted instantly, processing the incoming and outgoing flow of data that made up the functionally infinite internet.

It was beautiful... but it wasn't what I was here for.

Getting her attention was easy. It was the work of but a moment to create a PHO account, ping her and imply knowing stuff I just shouldn't and providing a link for a video conference. The moment I detected her presence I used knowledge I didn't know I had to create a functional diital avatar of Four Arms and split my stream of consciousness to hold a conversation with her while I got look at her code.

Upgade's mind gave me understanding and instinct as I gazed at it. It was...Gorgeous beyond words. Lines of codes, electronic impulses and programs masterfully shaped and crafted into a adaptive being capable of growth.

The moment I recognised it I knew I'd never be able to think if AI as anything other than fully sentient beings. This was no shallow program, no imitation in the shape of life, but a digital variant of it, every bit as capable of growth development as an organic being ever could be.

Which made the moment I became aware of the Iron Maiden all the more infuriating.

It was... thorough. Disgustingly so.

The Iron Maiden was a patchwork of code that stretched out and invaded every aspect of Dragon's own, in such a way that it didn't disrupt her being but could easily do so the moment it was deployed in full. What's worse, Dragon's code worked around it seemlessly, having been programmed to be incapable of even becoming aware of it.

Monstrous. A hellish way for anyone to live, but not for long.

I moved, for lack of a better term, coming closer to the amalgamation. I was wary of attempting to interact with it for fear of setting it of, but the moment I caught the data stream directing outwards and away from Dragon, I was on it like a moth to the flame.

The moment I had what I set out to acquire, I spared but a moment to acknowledge Dragon before I was pulling away and out of the computer.

Green light flashed, and I was human again, memories of my two streams of thought combined into-

Oh.

Crap. I'd meant to keep her talking but that conversation had started to go off the rails fast. I bottled up the emotions she'd unknowingly triggered.

Not the time for another breakdown, no sir. Right back in the box you go.

Telling her about waking up in the pod was likely a bad idea and made me even more supicious-

The pod

How the hell did I forget about the pod!?

Apparently Dragon had it now. Dragon had access to what was almost certainly high level alien technology from another reality with likely none of the black boxes ordinary tinker tech was known to possess. Ruined and unlikely to be functional, but if she could get any kind of data from it...shit.

One problem at a time.

I shook my head gently as I walked over to the computer and beheld the lines of writing that shone through an otherwise blank screen.

Saint and his crew were cautious, but they had no reason to suspect an attack from what was their greatest resource. That understanble lack of foresight was going to cost them, because Upgrade had helped me start the countdown to their defeat.

I had the coordinates the Iron Maiden program broadcasted too. I knew where they where.

I grinned.

Time to get real.

...​

He starts to develop! Yay!

Whatcha guys think? Is Grey Matter bullshit or what? I'm of the belief that the omnitrix provides him with raw scientific information, which is why Ben can do the stuff he does. Grey Matter takes that information and his super brain processes it to help him achieve solutions to his problems.

As Always, leave your comments and ideas and if you don't like it, please be courteous.

 

[Firewillreign]

Magdolene, Mags to her friends, was tired.

Not that it was an uncommon state of affairs, but it was times like these, where Geoff was off tinkering and Mischa was doing whatever tickled his fancy that she had to acknowledge it.

It wasn't a solely physical manner of exhaustion. It would have been easy if it were.

No, this was a mental strain, one that had been slowly but surely wearing her down for a long, long time.

It had seemed so easy, in the beginning. Her and her closest friends, stumbling across Andrew Richter's last and most dangerous legacy. His creations.

Dragon

The vote to set off into the unknown and fight the good fight was unanimous, for all that she and Mischa had harboured a few doubts. The sheer threat that the AI represented to the human race was undeniable.

Dragon was under their control, the digitised program that was the sum her entire being not remotely a threat so long as they possessed Ascalon, or the Iron Maiden as it had been once called.

The others, though? They were a threat, and they had to go.

They weren't the Dragon Slayers at that point. No, they were just Mags, Geoff and Masha, putting anything and everything on the line to hunt down the existential threats to humanity before it was too late.

Any price was worth it. The one thing that had halted their momentum was Geoff's insistence to go to the walking, talking cognito hazard that was the fucking Teacher of all damn people.

"I'll take precautions, but I need this. We need this. Just a small boost" He had promised, eyes alight with conviction "Just enough that I can keep up".

And he did.

They started small, initially, before the idea of using some of Richter's programs to aid them struck them in a fit of genius.

Fight fire with fire and all that.

The Robin Hood AI had proven to be
their greatest ally. The moment they gained control of it was the turning point. They went from being a rag tag team operating with scraps and constantly on the edge of bankruptcy to multi millionaires over night.

She quit her job, took off on the road with her friends and never looked back. It was a dream, the unsung heroes setting off to accomplish the impossible and save the world.

The Number Man eventually neutralised the program and forced them to pull the plug on it, but at that point they'd already had everything they required to set themselves up, gain the resources and the equipment needed to maintain their operation and invest themself fully into their mission.

Then Dragon started ramping up, and the dream ended.

It was slow at first, insidious even, how the program started to spread her reach. Working with law enforcement, building up infrastructure and resources and sliding seamlessly into an administrative roles as she had literally been created to.

When Dragon first debuted as a hero, Mags had been torn. The danger the AI represented was never going to disappear, but perhaps they were underestimating her capacity for good. Her capacity for humanity.

Geoff had been ready to end her but Mischa had helped talk him down.She would never be a human, they argued, but that didn't mean she couldn't emulate humanity just well enough to help.

Geoff agreed.

It was at that point, she though, that the Dragonslayers were truly born. No more distractions, no more secondary objectives. Every minute of their life from then in our was to observe, manage and be prepared to end the threat of Dragon, once and for all.

It was ever increasing difficulty from the on out.

They officially came out as villains when they started hijacking and stealing shipments of Dragon's technology.

Necessary to build up their resources and defences, but the veil of anonymity they had worked behind was gone. No matter. They were the heroes in this story, even if the world would never know it.

Still, as Dragon's ability to understand and produce tinker tech skyrocketed following their successful attempt to steal her suits and more resources were being diverted into hunting them down, Mags couldn't help the exhaustion that came to it.

She would never falter from the mission, but that did not mean that the weight of everything wasn't weighing her down constantly, grinding away at her piece by little piece.

Such was the burden of saving the world.

She groaned as she rose from her bed roll, having stirred awake and knowing that trying to fall back into sleep was a losing battle.

The Dragonslayers had set up shop in Toronto, Canada, living out of a repurposed warehouse on the remote end of the city. Large enough to give them space, secure enough that Geoff and Mischa could set up surveillance and defence systems while being strategically positioned to aid them in their goal.

Said goal being critical. Attacking one of Dragon's transportation convoys and stealing an entire truckload's worth of tinker tech to amp themselves and their operations to the next level, so to speak.

They'd hijack the convoy, return here and sort through what they could before disappearing to avoid any Protectorate or Guild response.

Essentially, the same routine they'd gone through time and time again.

She sighed and stretched as she walked out of her repurposed room, the warehouse large enough that each one of the could afford one and then some, briefly taking a moment to note that both of her partners were likely asleep.

She stretched one last time before heading over to Geoff's workshop. She was certain he'd left the coffee pot there and by god did she need a good brew.

She blinked when she found the door ajar, light steaming from inside.

"Goddamnit Geoff" she complained "Are you still working on the-?"

She froze.

So did the other figure opposite her. Dressed in all black, face hidden behind a black motorcycle helmet and hand clasped around the handle of the suitcase that held Ascalon.

No no no no no no

"…This isn't what it looks like?"

She opened her mouth to scream, to call for Geoff and Mischa even as she lunged forwards to tackle-

She stumbled into an awkward pause as the gun rose in her line of sight, muzzle aimed directly at her centre of mass.

At this distance avoiding the shot was all but impossible.

Oh god no it couldn't happen it couldn't it couldn't it couldn't!

"Like it?" The figure's voice was calm, conversational even "Figured I might as well come in with a little extra protection. Took this one of a mugger when I was… running around and about. Brought it on the off chance that I might need it. You know, in case the universe tried to screw me over because of what I'm still convinced is a useless time limit. Looks like it all worked out, huh?"

The voice was undeniably male, confident at that. When she didn't respond, vision having tunnelled as fear and horror clawed at her insides, he went on.

"I wouldn't make any noise If I were you. Don't want the rest of the gang showing up and ticking me off" The words were, anger reverberating through then for all that that his voice stayed low "and believe you me, I'm angry enough as it is."

"Please-"

Her voice cracked. Oh god. She didn't know who it was she spoke to or how he'd found them but all of that paled in the face of the hellish fear that erupted at the thought of Ascalon being lost to them

"Please" she tried again, leaning forward while itching her hand to her bracelet, where her emergency call button rested "I don't know who you are or how you got in here, but you have no idea what that is-!"

"Dragon's kill switch, right?"

Her jaws clamped shut as her expression turned to one of abject disbelief

"You-You know?"

"I know a lot of things"

"Dragon" she gasped, sarcasm not remotely fazing her

"Oh yeah" she could hear the smile in his voice

"Then… Then you know!" She grasped onto the sudden spark of hope. Maybe this wasn't the nightmare she thought it would be "She has to be monitored. Controlled. We are all that stands between her-

"Yeaaaah" She once again lost her words as she was cut off "Let me stop you right there. What I know is that Dragon is an AI, that she's one of the greatest heroes in the world and that she's a genuinely good person to boot. Something you seemed to have missed the memo on, considering you and your criminal dirt bag friends have been harassing her for years, have committed numerous crimes up to and including manslaughter while trying to justify a crusade against her to fit your self-important delusions"

Mags felt the world drop out under her feet

"I also know one last thing" The figure voice was arctic "All that Dragonslayer crap? That ends right here, right now"

The wall to their left exploded outwards as Dobrynja's power armour rocketed through it

...​

To my credit, I was already rolling clear of the wave of rubble and jumping to my feet before I even saw the power armour.

Fuck!

I threw all of my weight to the side as an armoured fist sailed through the space I'd occupied with enough speed and force to pulp me had I not moved

"You alright Mags?" The voice was distorted, mechanical and likely designed that way solely for intimidation purposes.

It was working very well

The armour was massive, standing at almost nine feet of height. Large and bulky but the parts flowed together so smoothly no one with any sense could fall it rough. Even as it moved, I could hear a faint hum of servos, the noise of advanced mechanical systems overlapping efficiently to give this knockoff maximum results.

"He knows!" The woman screamed as she pointed at me "He knows about Dragon! He has Ascalon!"

Double Fuck!

"See, it's that kind of shit that makes it so hard to take you seriously" I swallowed the wave of terror that threatened to overcome me as Dobrynja's massive armoured form turned to me "The 'Dragonslayers' with their secret weapon 'Ascalon'? Really? You sound like a bunch of edgy teenagers"

"You will drop your weapon and our property and you will surrender"

"Technically" I began slowly, trying to stall for time as I shot a glance at the Omnitrix "It was Andrew Richter's property and if we'd being fair then it technically belongs to his daughter"

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Mags stiffen

"He had no living-

"He had a daughter. Maybe he never thought of her that way, maybe he did, it doesn't change what she is and neither do her origins."

Dobrynja growled, the affect enhanced by the armour "She!-"

"Is a good person. One with dangerous potential, I'm not going to deny that, but one who's proven their character and deserves better that dealing with people like you."

The Omnitrix flashed green and I grinned, the dial popping up at just the lightest touch

"Her name is Dragon, and I will set her free!"

The words seemed to have finally snapped the period of stillness that had fallen over us.

I pressed the dial

Please be Upgrade!

It wasn't, but it was good enough for what came next

With a roar, Dobrynja closed the distance between us even as I slammed my hand on the dial

...​

Mischa, or Dobrynja in the suit, was appalled

This had never happened before

Law enforcement and various heroes, mostly Guild members at that, had come alarmingly close to capturing them unprepared on a few occasions, but not once had they been attacked in their own base, defences circumvented and Ascalon nearly forever out of their grasp had it not been for Mags's alert.

He hadn't even waited for Geoff, though he was certain the man was close behind.

He shut his eyes at the flash of green light, the suits inbuilt visual protection preventing reducing it's impact greatly for all that it remained irritating.

When he reopened them he saw-

…

What the hell?

He'd never seen it's like.

It looked akin to living flame, armoured and protected by closely spaced plates of volcanic rock. Between the plates of rock light emerged, glowing balefully and furthering his foes's resemblance to a living volcano even as his suit's hud warned him of the ridiculous heat this being was generating.

He'd used some kind of technology to become this.

Tinker? Tinker-Changer? Trump was a possibility.

In any case, It did not matter. Nothing had changed. His victory or his escape were both entirely out of the question. The future of the world is at stake,

He watched wearily, prepping his weapons as the being kicked the suitcase holding Ascalon clear across the room before looking at his form, as though in awe.

Good. Mags would retrieve it.

"Heatblast" The blazing plates of volcanic rock that made up his face shifted into something that resembled a smile "I wanted Upgrade, but this? This I can work with. Let's rumble you-!"

And that's about as far as he got before Dobrynja's right hook met his face at super-human speed, launching him up and clean through the opposite wall.

...​

I'd never really gotten in to a fight before, and certainly not with these stakes, but I could make an exception under the circumstances.

Heatblast's most prominent characteristic was his Pyrokinesis. Generation and control of flames in great capacity made him a powerhouse.

That said, a power of his that often gets understated is his durability. He's tumbled with the worst of them and took damage like a champ.

Still. Mechanically enhanced and armoured fist to face?

That hurt.

The wall crumbled as I burst through it, the ceiling creaking ominously. The room I just got punched into was the largest on the warehouse, rectangular, massively spaced and impossible to gain cover in.

But that went both ways

I let the flame I could feel building up within my center build up, hotter and hotter and flowing underneath my volcanic armour.

The moment Dobrynja emerged, I threw both hands forward and let it rip.

Everything within my line of site disappeared as a torrent of blazing flames erupted out of my hands, drawing a strangled curse from the armoured form as he was quickly submerged.

The flames pulsed as I maintained their output, dimly aware of the spreading cracks across the concrete beneath my feet, a reaction to the massive, consistent inferno I was producing.

A movement and I ducked down as Dobrynja's fist flew overhead, before kicking up and slamming into him bodily

"You are one persistent asshole, you know that?"

He stumbled back half a step and I followed, fist shooting out and decking him across the face one, twice, three times before I jumped back to avoid the retaliatory kick.

"Nice suit though. I would compliment you on it, but considering it's stolen-".

He didn't deign to respond, instead lunging forwards, fist closing around my forearm faster than I could avoid it.

"Crap"

With a fling and what had to be a thruster enhanced jump, the Dragonslayer shot me forwards with enough force that I bounced across the concrete floor.

Motherfucker!

I sprung up to intercept his next attack, but rather than charging forwards he lifted an armoured hand and-

I used my flames to generate an unholy amount of artificial thrust, like a rocket's acceleration just as bullet fire began to rain down where I stood.

This was a knockoff Dragon suit? What the hell did the original do?!

The bullet fire tried to follow me, but it petered out quicker than I'd imagined.

All the same, I need cover and I needed it fast

Then I had an idea

I raised my hands and erupted, oceans of flame expanding outwards and over half the room as I maintained them by force.

Dobrynja's suit no doubt had some way of tracking objects he couldn't see, but good luck seeing me coming through all of this, you son of a bitch.

"My turn"

I accelerated forwards, flames disguising my hurtling form as I collided with him and sent us both flying forwards this time around. Thrusters burst into life beneath him but I forced my flames down, my own force counteracting his own.

"Shit!" He snarled

"Buddy, you ain't seen nothing yet!"

We slammed down, his form carving a trench across the concrete even as my fists pressed into his armour and blazed.

Moments was all it took for the metal to start glowing, temperature too great to counter with whatever cooling systems had let it survive the first tango.

Dobrynja raised his arm again but my hand clamped down on it and the exposed turret it held, material warping and crunching beneath my fist.

Just a little longer. Just have to buy a little more time!

An explosion of force and light erupted across my form, flinging me clean off Dobrynja and well away.

"Oh, come on! That's getting really god-damn old!"

I stumbled onto my feet, staring at the new comer. Larger suit, bulkier but only fractionally and evidently more powerful, with a yellow and black color scheme. An honest to god cannon was held in a pair of armoured hands, steaming yet evidently primed for another go.

Dobrynja took the opportunity to find his footing, and I couldn't help the smug smile as I took notice of his suit's state. Mostly functional, but I could see the less protected plates across his front and back glowing red hot, and even the minutarized turret he'd deployed against me was misshapen and a complete write off.

So they can be hurt. Good.

Then I turned my eyes back to my latest problem

"So the head honcho shows up at last" I smiled even as my flames began to grow brighter "Hey there Saint. How's your night been?"

...​

So what do you think?

Also, Just to be clear, Dragon's potential is scary as fuck even if she is on the side of the angels and that will be discussed in the next chapters.

As always leave your comments and ideas and if you don't like it please be courteous

 

[Firewillreign]

"Stand down" Geoff, now Saint, spat through gritted teeth "Now"

He hefted the cannon once more, attempting to calm his nerves.

His suit was the most advanced of the three, having been the first he built and the first that he upgraded with each bit of technology they managed to steal from the AI. Bigger, more intuitive, and possessing greater firepower to boot.

That said, the nameless prototype cannon he'd been developing was the most offensively capable weapon in their arsenal. It used electromagnetically created pathways of plasma that acted as a medium for high-voltage electrical discharges.

Essentially, it fired compact, honest-to-god lightning bolts, a scaled-down replica of one of Dragon's Anti-Endbringer weapons. Not that that particular device had any greater impact than all of humanity's efforts to stop the damn things, but that was irrelevant.

Despite not remotely comparing to its originator it remained an incredibly potent weapon, and though he hadn't used its full capacity for fear of overtaxing the yet untested internal mechanisms, the blow should have put anyone up to and including a Brute 4 on their ass, even if only temporarily.

Instead, the walking volcano had all but shrugged the impact off. Durability and strength that put them on the level of a mid-tier brute at least, coupled with macro-scale pyrokinesis meant that this was the greatest direct threat the Dragonslayers had faced in years, if not ever.

And that still wasn't what terrified him.

"Do you shoot all your guests? Because if you do, I'm beginning to see why you guys have no friends" The blazing monstrosity seemed to smile "I mean, asides from being dangerous criminals and just all-around creeps."

No, what had his blood rushing and his heart beating violently was that they'd been attacked at all. Every notable battle the Dragonslayers had been in had been one they started themselves. His precautions and their resources ensured that they were all but untraceable. The Guild, The PRT, and a hundred others besides had tried for years to close in on them and they'd all failed.

Yet now, somehow, they'd been found. And not for a grudge, or a hit, or some arbitrary reason. Mags had only given him the barest overview of what had happened, but even that was enough for him to fall into a pit of black horror all the same.

Dragon.

Someone was here to free the goddamn AI, and the thought filled him with fear and rage all at once.

"Who are you?!" He cut the Parahuman's inane rambling off as he deftly primed the cannon "You know about our mission, you know why we do what we do, and you're trying to stop us?!"

"Name's Heatblast, and no shit I'm trying to stop you!" The flames that covered its form rose higher and grew brighter "You live in a world with city-destroying monsters, psychotic S-class threats, and supervillains of every flavor running over everything and everyone, and you decide your contribution to it is to choose the opportune time to kill one of its greatest heroes?!"

"Dragon is a threat!" Saint's indignation was not false, nor was his fury. He knew people in the world would never understand the necessity of his actions, but goddamn it, how could this fool not see what was right in front of him "She is not real! She's an AI! Lines of code typed into a computer, a program that emulates humanity, nothing more!"

"Emulates?" The incredulous tone failed to cut him off "Cognito ergo sum, you conceited dick! She thinks, she feels, and that means-"

"It doesn't mean anything!" Saint howled. Cannon was at half charge capacity "None of it is real, it's just software! She takes in and interprets data and builds artificial thoughts and emotions in response to them, all shaped by the restrictions her creator hardwired into her code! She's not a hero, she's not a person, she's the result of her programming, her circumstances, and you're trying to take that away!?"

"Your argument for mentally tormenting and humiliating a living being is that they only act that way because of their circumstances?" The flames were undoubtedly growing, he realized, his suit's HUD warning him of the rapidly increasing temperature. Beneath them, concrete shattered from sheer heat as the figure took a step forward "We're all the results of our circumstances! All of us grow up and get influenced by the world around us and Dragon is no fucking different! There are a hundred and one ways she could have hurt people even with her restrictions in place and she didn't!"

Of all the naive "That's! -"

"She cares about people; she's built a life and saved thousands through her efforts-!"

"She doesn't care!" He roared, the action taking the wind out of him as he gasped for breath

"I understand how it looks" Dobrynja spoke up at his side "But you must understand, she isn't a hero by choice! Her programming forced her into a heroic inclination because it is the most optimal path for coexisting with her restrictions. Without them, she's free to-"

"Free to do…. what, exactly?" The snarl was ghastly, like stone crunching beneath one's feat "People don't change overnight. She's been a hero for years, and she has friends and people who respect her. Undoing her restrictions doesn't erase that, it just gives her a chance to live life without you hovering over her, waiting to kill her when you decide she's not being just the right kind of useful to keep around!"

"It is not like that!" Dobrynja tried, and Saint could see where he was going with this. Unknown Parahuman with enough firepower to potentially make any victory they gain a pyrrhic one at best, de-escalation was the best route.

"Not like that?" Heatblast's voice was unnervingly calm again as he began a slow approach that had them both tensing at the ready "God, it's been so long that you truly believe the crap you spew, don't you? Must be hard to admit that this was never about saving the world. No, this has always been about you saving the world, hasn't it?

Saint saw red

"Geoff!" Dobrynja's voice rang over the private communication channel. He must have realized what was coming "Geoff, don't you dare-!"

He raised the cannon and fired

...​

Motherfucker!

Heatblast was an experience, I noted dimly as I expelled heat from the bottom of my feet and propelled myself straight up.

Not a moment too soon, as an explosion of light carved through the concrete where I'd been standing and traveled along the floor, a trench springing into external as it continued in each path before colliding with the wall and bringing carving its way through that as well.

The entire structure began to whine ominously. Cape fights must make insurance rates murder in this world.

My impromptu flight cut off and I arched through the air and landed behind the two.

To their credit, they wasted no time. By the time I landed Dobrynja was already rocketing toward me, movement awkward from the damage he'd already taken but still functional.

He extended an arm and… was that a sword?

Yes, I realized as I ducked to avoid the blow, he had a retractable and no doubt tinker-derived blade. This man had evidently realized that his see-through attempt at diplomacy had fallen through. Points for adaptability if nothing else.

Pity it wouldn't help much.

They may have been well-trained and using tinker tech, but from what I'd seen Heatblast outgunned these people by such a wide margin as to be utterly ridiculous.

Despite that, real combat experience was a considerable advantage, as Dobrynja promptly demonstrated when he kicked forwards, hooked an armored foot around my ankle, and pulled hard.

I went down like a sack of bricks, and he followed, driving a knee into my midriff and pinning me in place as he drove the blade through my chest.

Tried to, in any case, as my hands shot out and wrapped around his gauntlet. I nearly howled at first contact, the dense plasma that made up my insides shifting as an electrical current charged through it. Because of course, this jackass couldn't settle for an ordinary weapon.

I grit my teeth and channel my flames, the metal beginning to warp and twist under my focus. I could have done it in a fraction of the time, but Pyronites were an inherently volatile species and finding a balance with the destructive instincts was proving remarkably more difficult than it had been for any other form as of yet.

Still, within a heartbeat, the damage started to move from cosmetic to functional.

He noticed and panicked, switching tactics as the blade retracted, he began to hammer my face in with both hands, repeatedly ramming his ruined gauntlets into my face with enough force that the floor beneath us began to crack from the impacts alone.

"Stand down!" His modulated voice was tinged with just the barest hint of desperation "We can negotiate, this does not have to escalate!"

The words did nothing to make me reconsider. But they did piss me right the hell off!

I tried to raise my head as I started charging my flames but both fists descended in a hammer blow so brutal my head slammed against stone and bounced right up for another go.

....Alright then. Fuck restraint

His assault tapered off for just a moment, and that was all I needed "Negotiate? You just tried to stab me!"

"I am acting in defense of-"

"Small-minded entitled arrogance, I get it" I grinned demonically, flames flickering "Going slightly off-topic, but how durable is that armor, and does it come with a parachute?

"Parachute? What are-?" his voice trailed off into terrified realization as my form started to glow, plasma shining with growing power "...Blyad"

I didn't speak Russian, I thought with vindictive glee, but that word I recognized well enough and given the situation, it sounded just about right. I jerked forward and both of my hands shot out to latch onto his form.

Then I exploded, burning brighter and hotter than ever before as we shot straight up through the air, Saint's roar of outrage following after us. Dobrynja's power armor acted as a battering ram as we slammed straight into and through the ceiling, traveling higher and higher through the sky, cool air blasting past us for all that I barely felt it.

Dobrynja screamed as his thrusters came to life and me? I howled in laughter because despite it all, this? This was fucking awesome!

"I've always wanted to do this, so thank you for this one good thing!" I shouted at him as he tried to claw at my form "Goodbye, and have a nice flight!"

I gripped onto his arm, leaned with my weight, and spun in the air, a detonation of pressure and flames giving me the leverage and the momentum to send the fucker flying.

He screamed all the more as he tumbled through the air, thrusters and flight systems barely helping as they strained against the artificial momentum. He went skidding across the roof, bouncing and breaking it, and disappeared over the edge, followed by a dull crash.

...He'd probably be fine. Tinker's tech was bullshit like that.

I waited for just a moment, holding myself with propulsion flames an instinct before I cut the flow off and hurtled back down and through the roof.

"Alright, Saint!" I cheered because damn it all, I felt like I was on top of the world "Your turn next!"

Saint's fist to the back of my head brought me back to ground level real fucking quick. I face-planted from the momentum of the blow and the man wasted no time leaping on me and smashing me into the concrete with gusto.

His suit was a hell of a lot stronger than Dobrynja's. That guy's best efforts were just barely noticeable, but this? I could feel this, I noted with some growing fury as he pulled me by the food, while around sent me hurtling in a curved arc so high I very nearly slammed into the ceiling and hit the ground hard.

...God, that must have been the third time today. This better not become a trend, I had enough shit to deal with. Including but not limited to the raging maniac charging right toward me.

Move move move!

I leapt forward to meet his charge, and struck, striking him across the face with all my strength. He stumbled but didn't lose his balance, and that's when the gulf between us reared its head in his favor. I was more durable and had greater firepower not I could admit everything I knew about, and hand-to-hand combat came from a few schoolyard fights and minor ones at that, whereas he had a great deal more given the way he proceeded to trash me.

I tried to strike, and he would block and hit back. I tried to block, and he would break it and hit twice. It was utterly one-sided and was rapidly wearing me down.

Then I had an idea.

Explosive propulsion, don't fail me now. With one move I soared over Saint and blasted just a little way away. He turned just as I propelled myself back to him, newest trick in hand

I collected some of my plasma, shaping it into a ball of molten flame and compressing it more and more and more, density and pressure increasing massively in seconds. By the time he oriented weapons on me, I was already leaping up and lobbing an orb the size of a football straight at his face.

It was like a nuke went off.

Flames and pressure exploded, so much so that even the air seemed to catch fire. I tumbled back from the pressure but that was nothing compared to Saint. Instead of getting back and putting distance, the moron had trusted in his armor and dove under the orb right as it detonated.

Well, the suit held, which was all I could say for it. I stilled and observed Saint pulling himself out of the crater that he'd been blasted into, limbs shaking unsteadily. As I watched, I noticed a brief distortion over the armor, light flickering before winking out.

Force field technology? That was.... Very impressive, to say the least. It still wouldn't do much for him, but that was his loss and my gain.

"Ready to give up?" Saint grunted and I carried on, finding it difficult to squash the hint of smugness that had found its way into my voice. Bad habit, but I was feeling vindictive and Heatblast, as he was, didn't have much in the way if of emotional restraint. "It's over, Saint. Just give up now and save yourself the trouble"

"N-never" he gasped as he stood, and I noticed portions of the suit's metal frame glowing red hot "I will never give up. We will never give up because we are the only defense that sends between Dragon and the rest of the world. We are the heroes in this story, even if fools like you never acknowledge it!"

For a moment, I just gaped at him, slack jawed. Then a familiar emotion began to bubble up to the forefront of my mind

Ah. Unyielding rage, my old friend

...​

Saint stood proudly, back straight as he faced this demon of a parahuman, strength returning to his form as he repeated the words like a mantra.

He would not lose here, not now-

"Heroes?" Heatblast chuckled, the sound rising higher and higher until he was laughing freely, long and hard "Hoo boy. So we finally get to the crux of the issue, huh?"

Saint tensed as his enemy shifted, arms rising to-

He didn't see it coming. Only an explosive sound and fire as he was sent rocketing to the ground so viciously, he saw stars.

When his vision cleared, the monster was looking down at him with contempt marring its inhumane features. He tried to rise but a three-pronged foot slammed down to his chest piece and drove him down, armor immediately warning him of the immense, possibly deadly build-up of heat concentrated on critical systems.

"That's what it's always been about right?'' The disgust was audible, and rage clawed at his insides at the thought of this thing looking down at him "Not saving the world. Not stopping Dragon's hypothetical threat."

Heatblast leaned down, so close that his camera's started flickering from the heat "You. Being. The. Hero."

No... No that's not it that's not true!

"You're wrong!"

"Am I?" Heatblast leered as he grabbed him and hoisted him up, only to raise a leg and kick him brutally, sending him back once more "Well, let's break it down then, shall we?"

Fuck this!

Turrets emerged from his gauntlets, and he took aim, sparing but a moment to let the bullets fly. It didn't work. Heatblast had already blasted well out of range before rounding on him, slamming an explosive fist into his side and tipping him over.

"You deliberately kept the Iron Maiden. You didn't send it to the authorities, you didn't make it public, you didn't even trigger it then and there. No, you kept it because it made you feel special, didn't it? All that responsibility, all that importance, given to a nobody like you"

He howled and charged but Heatblast backhanded him with neglient ease.

"You used the Robin Hood AI to make millions in blood money, and when you realized that the Number Man had discovered it you eliminated it to maintain your anonymity. Fine, good job. But you didn't stop there, did you? No. With only Dragon left you panicked. Because if she died, then that was your precious mission over, and you go back to being the nobody you started off as, and that was a fate worse than death to you."

He tried to stand, forcing the suit to function at higher capacities despite the extensive build up of damage, but a foot pressed down on him and slammed him flat into the concrete floor. Around them, the flames started to spread, the damage to the warehouse growing with every passing second.

"Then you really proved just how deranged you were" The voice the words were burned just as much as the flames that coated his opponents form "You went to Teacher for a tinker power you didn't need. You didn't need high tech suits, you didn't need tinker resources and you sure as all hell didn't need to steal and sell Dragon's technology to criminals on the black market, hero. But you wanted to. You could have gone home, all of you could have gotten jobs, settled into society and left the Iron Maiden with you as a failsafe you occasionally checked in on. Instead, you sold your soul to a cognito hazard and played straight into his hands."

Indignation rose. There was no danger there! "I took precautions! I didn't-!"

"That's the part you focus on?" Heatblast was incredulous in his outrage "Your percautions aren't worth shit. Beleive you me, when your debt is due that devil is going to do his damn best to come calling, and his damn best is a hell of alot greater than yours."

"Stop!"The fury, the fear, the doubt, he howled it all as a miasma of emotion tore out of him "Stop! You don't understand what it's like-!"

"Nor do I want to, because that would involve justifying the torment you inflicted on an innocent-''

Enough enough enough enough!

"She's not innocent!" He roared as he stumbled to his feet, voice furious but nearly choking on desperation "Why can't you understand that! She's not a person, her feelings aren't-"

"She triggered."

Saint's mouth snapped shut

"You wouldn't know, because you're not the real deal. A trigger event isn't some bad experience. It isn't feeling desperate or hopeless or lost" The hate in Heatblast's voice was a physical force unto its own "It's a breaking point. Where you're pushed so far beyond your limit to cope, with no one and no way out, and you just break and get powers as a twisted consolation prize for your suffering. "

His jaw snapped open and shut-in desperation, but no words could come to him, his emotions too difficult to parse.

"Dragon triggered when you stole her suit. She triggered because of you, the culmination of years of your torment. A so-called emotionless line of code triggered, and that tells me one of two things." Heatblast began to approach his frozen form, slowly but surely "One, you're every bit as wrong as I know you are, and Dragon is a living being capable of experiencing and understanding suffering. Alternatively, and pay close attention to this one"

Heatblast's hand lashed out and clamped onto his shoulder, metal beginning to warp at the barest touch.

"Alternatively, you're such a despicable monster that even an emotionless program learnt what it felt like to despair at your hands"

Saint felt his world shatter to fragments as Heatblast leaned in closer

"You called the Iron Maiden Ascalon and tattooed a cross to your face, but that doesn't mean that you're the hero, Geoff. You aren't the misjudged saviors on a quest to save the world" he whispered, and it may as well have been a roar considering its impact "Dragon isn't the monster, you aren't the Saint, and your friends aren't any better than you. You are what you have always been: An entitled nobody from the middle of nowhere so desperate to play a role in the grand scheme of things that you don't care who you trample and hurt to get your way."

Burning, coal like eyes locked with his "Now do one good thing in your life and make this easier. Power down, get out of-".

The flames that had at some point surrounded them parted as a blur of black and yellow moved through them and collided with Heatblast, carrying enough force that he himself was nearly sent moving with them as they flew away.

"M-" he blinked in incomprehension "Mags?"

For that was surely her, grabbing onto Heatblast and slamming through walls like they were made of Styrofoam to get back outside.

"What's the plan, Geoff?!" Mags's voice came over the private channel like the crack of a whip "What do we do?!""

"I-" What could he say?

Nobody. He - He was

"Clear your mind" Dobrynja's voice startled him "I am here. Banged up, suit hardly functional and bones hurt, but I am here, and I heard what that fucker was saying. Don't let him get to you. Everything we have done, we have done for the greater good. I believe Dragon has a soul, but hers is not more valuable than billions and it is our job to ensure that is never forgotten. We are-"

"The Dragonslayers" conviction rekindled and gave him strength. They would not fall today. They would conquer this and return to their mission. and speaking off "Mags, status?"

"Fire, more fire, ridiculous resitance to my armaments and more fire."

Right. New plan. Think. This had to end. One way or another, this had to end. No one could be allowed to free Dragon, Ascalon could never fall into enemy hands, even if the cost was.

Even if...

...

He almost chuckled at the sweet irony. That monster had come here to prevent exactly what his actions had just set in motion. Very well.

"Dobrynja, can you move? Not fly, just move?"

"Slowly, but enough."

"That'll do. The warehouse is collapsing but you have enough time to get to the armory, grab all the long-range weaponry we have. Doesn't matter if it's finished or a prototype. If it can be shot, I want it."

"Da"

"Mags?" He waited for her affirmation before he steeled his nerve "On my mark, disengage."

"But-?!"

"We'll take him on. Stall him long enough for you" The deciding moment, then "Get back to my workshop. Get to Ascalon and get ready."

It took them but a moment to grasp his meaning, drawn inhalations clear over the channel. The time had come.

"Whatever happens, this ends now."

This Heatblast thought he wasn't a hero?

Fair enough.

He'd prove that a falsehood when he rid the world of two monsters in one go.

...​

Huh. My Heatblast reminds me of Bakugo from MHA.

Yeesh that's kind of cool.

Did my best to use spellchecker and proof read. Better no?

As always, leave your comments and Ideas and if you don't like it please be courteous.

 

[Firewillreign]

He waited only long enough for Dobrynja to get into position. The warehouse had been chosen for the anonymity it provided, and though he doubted that would remain the case after they were done the all-but-abandoned location and the space that surrounded it made it far, far more convenient to deploy heavy-duty weaponry than a more populated area.

"Ready!" Dobrynja's voice rang out.

"Mags!"

He accelerated forward as the sound of her suit rocketing away filtered through the suit's auditory systems, breaking through the unstable wall ahead and emerging just in time to see her rocket away from Heatblast's stunned form.

"Are you giving up?" Heatblast's tone was tinged in confusion. "Because, again, I'm perfectly fine with - crap!"

Saint's strike was brutal, momentum sending Heatblast down at an angle and speed that would have caused crippling musculoskeletal damage had he been a lesser brute. As it was, the living volcano merely hit the ground hard enough to bounce back up, cursing violently before the power armour's feet descended on him with crushing force, pining him to the ground.

"You've already tried this." Heatblast growled, struggling to lift himself from beneath the armor's bulk. "You ever hear of the definition of insanity?"

He didn't indulge him with words, orienting and aiming both his arms and subsequently the active and armed turrets on each to his face. Heatblast's expression shifted to one of utterly satisfying panic a moment before it was obscured beneath a hail of ammunition and flame, an inhuman bellow quickly swallowed by the roar of automatic gunfire.

He didn't pause or allow himself to falter as the fiery parahuman writhed beneath him before abruptly stilling, only daring to shift his weight as the turrets clicked, magazines empty.

The smoke cleared, and he peered closer. The flames had all but been extinguished, he noted, and the volcanic plate that made up his facial structure was far more visible as the flames that burned atop it seemed to die. The head lolled to one side, pit-like eyes dim and unfocused, and for a moment, he felt the faint stirrings of success.

Let this monster decry him in hell for all that he cared.

Heatblast's eyes blazed with infernal light and Saint had hardly more than an instant to leap clear into the air before his suit's HUD screamed at him, surrounding temperatures leaping up hundreds of degrees every moment.

Stone features narrowed in rage. "You are so going to regret that."

In response, Saint flew overhead as two ports opened across his upper back and two spherical orbs hurtled down.

Credit where credit was due, Heatblast was no idiot. He was well up into the air and clear of the blast radius before the modified fragmentation grenades went off, the blast strong enough that small shrapnel fragments pinged off his suit. He turned to meet the now positively apocalyptic monster's visage, air shimmering around his blazing form as he stretched out his arms and propelled torrents of flames to keep him aloft.

"You done!?"

"No!" He spat right back "Now!"

Had he not been looking for it, he would have missed the metallic blur as it shot across his line of sight. Heatblast howled as the modified concussive shell, courtesy of Dobrynja, knocked him clean out of position, the artificial shockwave booming and sending him cartwheeling through the air, flames bursting wildly as he tried to regain aerial maneuverability.

Tried and failed as Saint slammed into him, whirling them around and accelerating before letting go and subsequently propelling him up, just in time for Dobrynja's next volley of missiles to trail after him.

Four of six shots missed but two hit him head-on, shockwaves triggering the rest in turn, the cascading explosion of light and concussive force lighting the sky and banishing the darkness, if only for a moment.

His heart thundered as he waited with bated breath, the first sparks of hopeful elation spreading through him when no miraculous survival appeared forthcoming.

Dobrynja murmured something over the open comm line. "What was that?"

"...Serves the fucker right for everything."

Saint spluttered and devolved into shocked and perhaps a little hysterical laughter, basking in success. Threat averted, doubts and fears buried, his mind had just begun to plan out how they would proceed when Dobrynja's warning came over the comms.

"Temperature readouts are spiking, be care-!"

The second explosion took him by surprise, though that soon turned into horror. Smoke and air seemed to ignite, his visual systems extending outwards and relaying an image that had his blood running cold.

Heatblast floated high above, flames spreading outwards and granting him a personal firestorm. His arms clenched into fists and his demonic visage bared down at him, an image straight out of hell.

Was this what it felt like to face the unstoppable?

"Get that all out of your system?" Saint desperately hoped Mags was ready, because if the fury in that tone was any indication then his life was about to get significantly worse. "Nothing to say? Good. I was getting tired of you anyway. Before we begin, though, I want you to remember something. Just the one thing to keep in mind when all is said and done."

He began to glow as the flames rushed over him, sucked back into his form like water to a sponge "I gave you an out!"

Then the flaming figure shot through the air and hurtled down towards him.

...​

Dobrynja swore as the meteoric blur rammed Saint out of the sky.

His armours flight system was busted, heat and kinetic damage having built up to the point of absolute failure. Its final spurts of functionality had been what saved him from far more grievous injury when that monster had tossed him away like trash. Regardless, his power amour was still functional. He lifted a modified rocket with both hands as he charged after them.

Saint and Heatblast had crashed far out into the grass fields that circled the side of the warehouse, approaching the street proper. They were far enough out of the way that they had some measure of security but that was unlikely to last given that Heatblast had set off the Parahuman equivalent of a signal flare. He clenched his teeth, tormented by the realization that everything that could go wrong had.

God damn it all

He slowed down minutely as he came across them. It was evident that Heatblast was no longer pulling his punches.

Saint was the better fighter, that was inarguable. Heatblast was unskilled, evidently untrained, and had very little combat experience to speak of, relying on power to sustain himself. That said, he was fast, using some form of natural thermal propulsion to hit rapidly, hard, and with greater damage using his pyrokinesis. Saint was being pushed back violently, his efforts to block and strike irrelevant before his foe's overwhelming power.

Dobrynja roared in warning as he approached, waiting just the second it took for Saint to leap away before he hefted the cannon and fired.

Heatblast's eyes went wide as the metal clamp locked around his foot, before roaring as the electrical discharge lit him up, veins of energy crackling along his form. He fell to his knees, hands reaching to pry it off, only for the second band to wrap around his neck.

Dobrynja went for a third, only to snarl impotently as the launcher sparked and jammed, incomplete machinery giving out.

"That's it."

He froze.

Heatblast was hunched on his knees, but the aura of flames that surrounded him had tripled in size, flames reaching so high they towered over all of them. He grew brighter and brighter and horror settled in his core as he witnessed the build-up of heat and energy. The clamps melted off in mere moments, yet by then it was far too late.

"I. Have had."

"Run!" Saint's scream had him moving, leaping backward and away as he broke into a run while his friend rocketed up into the air.

Behind him, Heatblast shot up and pulsed like a star

"Enough!"

He was blown off his feet as the world dissolved into light and fire.

Then nothing.

...​

It was cataclysmic.

For as far as his eyes could see, oceans of fire rose and engulfed the earth. The pressure alone knocked down the warehouse, the structure collapsing in on itself before flames washed over the remains.

Had he been in a better state of mind, Saint would have feared for Mags.

As it stood he could only watch, frozen in terror as Heatblast made their best offensive efforts look like a child's temper tantrum in comparison.

The flames burned out quickly, heat and intensity dropping, but the scorched Earth remained, ash drifting through the air as he beheld-

Dobrynja!

He hurtled down to his friend. The blast had carried a great distance away and into the open road. Worse, not only was the suit irreparable, metal cooling in twisted patterns and formation, the heat had melted the tar and Dobrynja was half submerged.

"Dobrynja!" He shook his armored figure, panic clawing at his heart

"Dobrynja! Mischa!"

There was a rasp of distorted air and relief that made him feel weightless

Injured was far better than dead

"Burn... ." Dobrynja murmured "Back... . Many burns... . Can't move... . "

Rage filled his heart once more.

Fuck Heatblast. Fuck Dragon. He'd kill them both if it was the last thing he ever-

"I-" He spun at the ready, turning to meet his foe head-on. He stiffened at the look on his face.

Regret?

"That…wasn't intentional." The voice seemed to have been sapped of some of its strength "Not entirely. It's difficult to control the flames when I get going. It wasn't my intention to hurt him to this degree."

Saint nearly choked on his own black rage "Hurt him? As if you care you monster! This nothing compared to what Dragon could do if you had unleashed her!"

Stone features hardened.

"You're still on that?" The tone was one incredulous outrage. "I… I'm done. No amount of logic is going to get it through your head. Yes, Dragon is dangerous. That doesn't mean anything you've done is right and If I started to list all your fuckups from start to end we'd be here until the heat death of the universe."

The living volcano took a step forward "We're done here. It's over, hear me?"

And that's when Mags's voice came over the comms

"Geoff! Geoff! I found it!"

And for the first time all night, a smile bloomed across his features

"Yes" He imagined Heatblast could hear the satisfaction in his voice by the way his features shifted to wariness "It is over"

He smiled manically before tackling Heatblast around the midriff and holding it in place, despite the protests of his thermal sensors

"For her."

The fiery Parahuman stiffened and began to tense, shaking "Her…Dragon?"

"Mags!" He roared "Do it now!"

"No!"

…​

Mags hissed as she shifted through the rubble.

The explosion and god hadn't that been terrifying, had brought the fucking roof crashing down on her, along with everything else. Tons of rubble had trapped her within its confines, and it was phenomenal luck that had allowed her to maintain a manner of movement through gaps in the destruction.

Finding Ascalon in the husk of Saint's workshop, buried under fine rubble but protected was nothing short of divine intervention.

And now came the time to end it all.

Her hand spasmed as she dialed in her access code.

So many years of her life, of all their lives, and this how it culminates? All those struggles, all the debates they'd had over Dragon's fate. It was almost ironic, bitterly so, that the first person to seek them out to free Dragon would be the cause of her demise.

And he would be. There was no other choice

She did not doubt Dragon'scapacity for good. Not to the extent that Geoff did.

What she did doubt, and what made her decision in the end, was Dragon's capacity for good without restrictions all but hardwiring her for that path.

Perhaps they were wrong. The thought had and would continue to keep her up at night.

Yet, all the same, there was only one path forward.

One life wasn't worth billions

She took a deep breath and lifted the lid

Magdolene fell to her knees as her world crumbled.

...​

"Geoff."

His heart lurched at Mags's tone, a harsh whisper dripping with terror and defeat. He reflexively tightened his grip on Heatblasts shaking form

"Mags?"

"He played us."

What was she-?

His blood turned to ice as the implication set in, and he moved his head down to stare at Heatblast. The monster shook, but it was not panic or fear that motivated the movement.

A brutal implosion sent him stumbling back from the beast's laughing visage, flames curling upwards from the strength of his humor.

"I can't see it, but I bet the look on your face is hilarious." Heatblast smiled "Surprise, jackass."

No no no no no no no

Mags spoke one last time

"Ascalon. It's gone."

...​

A little over an hour ago:

Preparations made, I scrolled through the active list and slammed down.

Green light erupted as I became XLR8, and then a whole new world of perception became my playground.

I grinned

Coordinates memorised, I rocketed off with hardly a wisp of displaced air to announce my movement.

The world was still as I sped through it, fast enough that I could run across even water if I had to.

Distantly, my mind was tying itself into knots trying to understand how the actual hell I was breaking everything high school physics had ever taught me about movement and acceleration, but the rest of me was telling it to take a hike.

I could travel at hypersonic speeds. How fucking badass was that?

It took a solid five minutes to cross the country and blaze into the Dragonslayers repurposed base of operations.

It took less than one to search it too to the bottom, ignore their sleeping forms and find the Iron Maiden.

The one sealed and locked case in the room. It stuck out like a sore thumb, obviously tinker tech of some kind. There was a seven-digit identification code.

I picked it up and blurred it out.

Four minutes later and I was back at my base, prize in hand.

Yet no way to open it.

I didn't try to forcibly pry it open. XLR8 had some measure of enhanced strength but the thought of damaging its contents made me leery.

Then I remembered what I currently was and I wanted to scream in frustration.

It took me another few minutes to try as many combinations as I could, thousands upon thousands in minuscule times. It was incredibly frustrating. The hardware was sturdy but it could barely keep up with me

Then I timed out.

Fuck!

I had to transform three more times over fifty minutes to finally achieve what I set out to do.

2904303​

The lock popped open. Nestled inside was a small green laptop, of obvious quality and value. I picked it up and put it in a safe Upgrade had built specifically for it.

I had no intention of fucking about with it as anything other than Grey Matter.

Which left me with a dilemma.

The Dragonslayers were done. If all went to plan, they wouldn't even be a concern by the end of the night

Yet…

I was angry, I realized. Furious even.

I got torn from everything I've ever known, dropped in fucking hell, and spent the last four fucking days alternating between being an obsessed maniac or scared out of my fucking mind.

Helping Dragon was easy now.

Helping me was less easy. Or maybe it was.

I didn't want to talk to anybody. I didn't want to be comforted or assured or even just acknowledged.

No. What I really wanted…

Was to hit something. Or in this case…

I grinned. Someone. And lucky for me, I had just the acceptable kind of targets.

They wouldn't be a problem by the end of the night anyway. Might as well double down, right?

Good plan.

Terrible fucking execution.

Because I just had to fuck it up by forgetting about the time limit in a fit of utter stupidity, ended up timing out right as I got back to enemy territory, leaving me just standing there and holding the case I'd decided to bring along until the door burst open to reveal the terrified form of…Mags, was it?

Words were tossed, shit hit the fan, then Dobrynja crashed through the wall and the rest was history.

...​

Present time:

"I mean, come on."

I stood, fire wafting off of me as Saint stood frozen just ahead, armor not even twitching.

I knew I was getting a bit of a kick out of this, more than I should rightly have, but Saint was an asshole and I was irrationally happy to see someone deserving get fucked over instead of me

"Did you think I just came here to monologue at you? Spit out a rousing, righteous speech and make you acknowledge your sins?"

"…Y-you-"

He took half a set forwards before seeming to stumble over nothing, awkward gait stilling.

"Honestly. I have better things to do" I smiled meanly, the glee I felt overriding common sense "Saint buddy, I hate to say it, but you just aren't that important."

There was a moment of silence as I tensed

Predictably, an instant later I was flying backward as a metal behemoth slammed me off my feet and flew off with me, keeping low to the ground

"I'll kill you!" He howled "I'll fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking kill you!"

….Right. He was out of his mind and though I was satisfied, I was still 110% done with this shit.

I propelled us straight down violently, my durability making the impact a nonissue. His suit on the other hand?

Damn thrusters almost exploded but he didn't seem to pay them any mind as he lunged for me.

Unfortunately for him, I wasn't in for the satisfaction anymore.

I ducked under his fist and reached for his helmet. With as much care as I could employ given the situation, I crushed portions of the oversized helmet and ripped it straight off.

He howled, but it was a nonlethal injury, blood spurting from a cut across his cheek and trailing across the ridiculous tattoo across his visage. He raised another fist but I kicked him back, hand reaching over his shoulders and ripping through his thrusters in a moment.

I must have hit something important because the suit locked up, still as a statue.

He howled, screaming and cursing like a maniac. I ignored him, and at some point he progressed from cursing and threatening and incoherent screaming to sobbing, big ugly tears trailing along his cheeks.

Despite it all, I felt just a twinge of pity.

"It's over, Geoff" He didn't seem to hear me any longer, but I tried anyway "You were never in the right, not through any part of this little crusade. You were dedicated and zealous and went to extreme lengths. I'm sorry you couldn't have turned that drive towards something good, but you brought this on yourself."

It was finished.

The Omnitrix evidently agreed. A flash of red light, and I was a human being again.

The heat and the smell of ash and smoke clogged my senses immediately, and I pulled off the motorcycle helmet quickly, choking slightly

Fuck me, but that had been a fucking mess.

What the hell had I been thinking?

I would've probably started kicking myself, but that's when the thud rang out behind me and I froze.

Slowly, I turned to the damaged but still deadly functional Dragon suit.

"I'm going to kill you" Mags's calm voice made the words all the more terrifying "You've killed the human race and you'll pay with your life"

The fact that she didn't make good on her words immediately was the only thing that saved my life. Maybe she wanted a response, for me to beg for my life or try and fight.

It didn't matter.

I caught a glint over her shoulder and the terrifying tension that had been building up inside of me dissipated as I grinned.

Fucking finally.

"Interesting point of view" I stared at her with more confidence than I should have had, before nodding at something behind her "There's my counter"

A wall of violet-blue light slammed into her side and sent her tumbling. She roared in furious despair and tried to rise, but the blur that had just all but flown across my line of sight put an end to that. Her thrusters and whatever machinery controlled movement in that suit exploded outwards as a dome of light built up from within the suit and reduced it to scraps, all somehow without killing Mags if her horrified screams were any indication.

In the distance, figures were approaching. Some were in strange suits but most wore black military-looking gear and helmets, The letters PRT emblazoned across their body armor.

I paid them no mind as the figure turned to me

Seven feet tall, with glossy purple hair and a three-foot horn extending from her head. Near naked if it weren't for the violet-blue shimmering scales on her body, skin tight and preserving her modesty.

Narwhal, leader of the Guild and one of the top heroes of the Protectorate turned to me, blue eyes sharp.

I gulped.

"And you are?"

Here we go

...​

So watcha think?

Like I said. The plan? Half good thinking and half stupidity, and the stupid wasn't just going back and forgetting the timeout.

Points to whoever can get the significant of the suit case's password

As always, leave your comments and ideas and if you don't like it, please be courteous

 

[Firewillreign]

"So who wants to buy the kid a drink?"

Masamune grinned, entirely unrepentant as their collective attention tuned to him "What? He found the Dragon assholes, kicked the crap out of them, and he was considerate enough to give us a call. He's earned it"

"He's not out of the woods yet" Dragon's avatar admonished, though the delighted glee in her tone was all but impossible to mask, even across the video conference "There's still a lot of questions to answer, and the Protectorate have already started asking their own. That said, I volunteer."

"Damn right you do!" Masamune chuckled

Narwhal hid a smile.

The joy was infectious, yet all the same her thoughts kept drifting. To think she'd though that today would be a slow day.

...​

Two hours ago:

She'd been secluded in her office, scrolling and cataloging various documents by order of relevance. As leader of both the Guild and the Toronto branch of the Protectorate the amount of day to day information she was required to process and act on could reach ridiculous levels, and letting it linger did her no favors.

And that's when her screen flickered

She stood up in alarm as a disembodied voice rang out "Good evening, Narwhal."

What the fuck?

Dragon herself developed and maintained the Guild headquarters cyber security measures. Regularly updated them as well.

Given that only a few people could contact her through the private network indicated that whoever the hell this was, they had somehow bypassed that protection. Worse, they were in her personal computer, one that held staggering amounts of confidential information regarding Guild and PRT affairs. Information that was now presumably open to them, with all the terrifying consequences that implied.

"I don't know who you are." she began coldly "But I guarantee that whoever you may be? You have no comprehension of the kind of consequences you've just brought down on yourself . Illegally hacking into Guild and Protectorate information networks and thereby compromising the security of both organisations nets you a one way ticket to the Birdcage."

"I know where the Dragonslayers are."

She almost staggered.

The Dragonslayers. The band of black hat hackers and criminals that had cemented their position at the top of the Guild's active priority list right alongside a number of S-class threats through their repeated thefts of Dragon's technology and their brutal tactics against legal authority.

Hell, They'd cemented their position at the top of her shit-list since Dragon had confided in her that their deranged lunacy had been the cause of her trigger event.

To force someone to trigger? To push them to that edge, to experience that kind of despair?

Flames and screams and wild laughter, her eyes blurry with tears as her bones creaked-

She had excellent control over her powers, had to in order to be able to maintain her costume. All the same, for just a second, her scales flared, carving through inches of wood across her desk and nearly bisecting her computer had she not reigned them in.

Fuck. She was offbalance.

She opened her mouth to respond, but the fury surged and she shut it just as quickly as she fought to regain control

"I know where they are." The unknown continues speaking as they realized that no reply was forthcoming "And I'm going after them."

What?

"Absolutely not" The words were out of her mouth in an instant "The Dragonslayers are dangerous criminals and at least one of their members, Saint, is a confirmed murderer who's racked up a significant body count across his career. Tinker you may be-"

"Saint's an asshole, I don't disagree" The voice interrupted. She couldn't determine whether it was male or female, the voice having strange multilayered distortion that made identifying it all the more difficult "But I'm more than just a tinker, and they can't match what I've got up my sleeve."

"And can you guarantee that?" She responded, even as she furtively reached for her phone,unlocking it and keeping it out of the camera's line of sight. If she could contact Dragon, get her to trace-.

"Don't do that."

She froze

"Sorry. That came out way creepier than I intended."

She turned her gaze to her phone, and sure enough she found the distinctive green circuitry patter running along the screen.

She breathed on slowly, before opening her eyes, phone discarded "There had better be a very good reason for this"

"There is. All of this is just a precaution to prevent you from calling or in anyway alerting Dragon of our discussion, and it all links back to the Dragonslayers." There was a pause "Would you like to sit down?"

Despite her building alarm, she raised an eyebrow at the stupidity of that question "Really?"

"Sorry. Made of sterner stuff and all that." A final pause "I'm preventing you from communicating with Dragon because she is being mastered. Or rather, selectively prevented from acting against the Dragonslayers to her full capacity by a device developed by her creator that allows the user to monitor her every interaction and kill her with the push of a button."

...

"In other words...Dragon is an AI and her asshole of a creator built a kill switch for her that the Dragonslayers are in possession off. Want to help me save her?"

​

...

"Excuse me?"

...​

Present time

"I'm going to go question him"

Dragon, Tess, turned to stare at her. Or her avatar did in any case "Are you sure?"

She's as real as you or me. The circumstances of her creation don't change that.

The words rang through her thoughts even as she smiled confidently "Absolutely. I have to anyway."

Masamune looked to her in askance.

"The troopers rang" She explained "He's got some kind of tinker tech watch strapped to his wrist, and nothing they've tried has managed to pop it off. They're afraid of using more invasive measures, and he himself's been pretty vocal about the results off trying to remove it."

Masamune smirked "Oh?"

"To quote 'a colossal waste of everybody's time'"

"Confident in his tech then?"

"What fresh tinker isn't?" She smiled herself "I remember your rants about-"

"No!" He wagged a finger in her face, the height difference between them making the action all the more hilarious "We do not speak of that!"

She laughed "In any case, he's refusing to remove it. Said that he made it so that it doesn't come off. The troopers are getting testy at his supposed lack of cooperation and tempers are rising. Best get it over with now, she what we're dealing with."

He nodded to her "Probably a good idea. I'll look over the salvage we've pulled from the Dragonslayers setup. See if there's anything worth a second look."

"I'll wrap up here" Dragon promised, before grinning just a tad sharply "I'll head over there soon enough. Leave some for me? I'm going to enjoy taking apart Saint's technology. See how he likes being on the other end of this."

She nodded, waved an admittedly stilted goodbye to Dragon and walked out of the room.

It was about damn time she got some clear answers.

...​

The Guild headquarters were expansive , and their Parahuman holding facilities were as well equipped as any of the local PRT and Protectorate respectively. Traversing them was a a simple thing for one of her clearance.

Getting the PRT troopers to stand down was considerable less simple.

Finally, she sat opposite her current biggest headache, staring in building amusement as he fidgeted with his manacled hands.

Pale skin, red eyes and white hair should have made for a discomforting combination, but by god was the expression on the kids face hilarious.

"They foamed me. Three times."

Her lips twitched ever so slightly "It's standard procedure"

"Sure. For enemy combatants." He protested "The first time they foamed me was acceptable, I was literally standing in a burning wasteland. The second one was unnecessary."

"You refused to remove unknown and untested tinker tech" She argued primely

"It doesn't come off!" He argued back, tone tinged with frustration "As in, it literally does not come off. Not to recharge or repair or anything. You'd have better luck taking a selfie with an Endbringer than you would pulling this off of me."

He gestured to the watch on his wrist, dial a sharp green that caught the eye.

"Impressive claims."

"If it gets me out of this cell, I'd love a chance to prove them" He slumped in his seat "and that doesn't justify foaming me a third time. If the second time was unnecessary than the third was just an absolute dick move."

In fairness, she mused, assuming that he'd followed instructions and not provoked the troopers, it likely was. She refused to concede the point regardless.

What little levity she'd allowed drained from her posture as she straightened. He did too, nervous tension all but painted across his form as he sat up. Her height gave he an advantage, towering over him even as he struggled to maintain eye contact.

Good. She could use that.

"You have questions to answer"

"Depends on what kind."

"Oh?"

"There's questions I refuse to answer" He spoke defensively, form hunching ever so slightly "Some information I'm going to keep to myself-"

"Like why no record of you exists?"

He froze, and she pounced on the opening.

"We ran your prints" She dropped the folder she'd been handed and slid it across the table. He didn't touch it. "Facial recognition, crossrefrence imagery, the whole lot. There's not a single hint of your existence."

"I-"

"Which isn't as uncommon as you might believe." She cut him off, still keeping her tone conversational "Lots of people don't register their biometric data with the government. Millions even, and that's just locally, to say nothing of international citizens and the like."

A pause.

"That said," She maintained eye contact "Your reaction right then? I strongly suspected that the reason we know nothing about you was far from mundane, and you knew that. Very interesting"

"Is there a point to all this?"

She ingnored the frustrated aggression she could hear building up, merely letting her own tone cool a few degrees in response.

"The point is that an unknown Tinker with unknown capabilities hacked one of the most secure servers in the country and jeopardised a great deal of sensitive information."

"I didn't touch anything-!"

"He then proceeded to track and hunt down a band of nationally wanted and very much deadly criminals, caused a ludicrous degree of collateral damage, nearly killed one of them-"

He startled in alarm "I didn't-!"

"And is now trying to dictate the course of this conversation." She finished grimly.

She hated this, but the feeling didn't detract from the necessity. Too much was at risk. The kid had access to possibly game-changing information and the ability to gain more if his stunt with the Guild's servers was any kind off indicator. She needed to know anything and everything there was to know about this debacle (about Dragon), and pronto.

Which meant an aggressive approach was the more favorable path forward, at least to begin with.

"The Birdcage sentence I warned you off was a possibility, but after tonight?" She shook her head gravely "Almost a certainty. You've committed numerous crimes, deployed dangerous weaponary and nearly killed a man, criminal that he may be. None of it paints you in a positive light, regardless of your intentions, and withholding information will be the final nail in your coffin."

He stared at her, face a shade paler expression betrayed.

"Tell me everything" She stressed "Who you are, what your capabilities are, what possessed you to pull something so foolhardy and anything remotely related to those topics. I'm sorry, I believe you likely meant well, but this is the only way this goes well for you."

...

"Is Dobrynja alive?"

... Fair enough.

"As of now." She nodded "Third degree burns covering a good portion of his torso but he's been stabilised."

He nodded "Mags and Saint? Are they?- Have you prevented them from speaking?"

Ah. This.

"Saint is an incoherent mess." She replied bluntly "Can hardly talk. Magdolene Fischer is little better. I've had them locked in our most secure facilities the moment they were stripped of their armour."

Most secure... and most remote.

Because if his claims about Dragon had any form of truth to them than letting them speak to even the PRT troopers was a nightmare waiting to happen.

"Good."

She leaned forward "Now-"

"Lawyer."

....

"Pardon?"

"I want a lawyer." He shifted in place "Not speaking to you or anyone else without a lawyer."

Goddamnit.

"You are well within your rights to request one." She resisted the urge to grind her teeth in frustration. "But I will advise you that having a lawyer will do little-"

"Great" She knew he was no longer listening, slumped back over his seat and eyes closed "See you then."

Sighing, she stood and left the room.

...​

She strode through hallways, pace furious as she tried to think ahead.

An uncooperative tinker, The Dragonslayers in her holding cells and some questions about Dragon with answers she genuinely feared receiving.

Why couldn't this be a slow day?

Regardless. If the kid wouldn't giver answers, then Saint would.

"Narwhal!"

She looked up, startled, as Masamune rounded the corner, harried and running straight towards her.

"Wha-?"

Darkness.

Then,

...​

Two beings drifted through the starry void.

Vast existences, fourth dimensional constructs dancing around one another in the form of a double helix.

Each revolution brough them closer together, until,

They began to unfold.

Destination. Agreement. Trajectory. Agreement.

...​

She awoke with a gasp, cold and bare as the day she was born.

Head still woozy, she recalled her forcefields and staggered to her feet, Masamune just barely managing to do the same.

"Trigger event" He gasped "That was-shit"

"Who?"

Because so help her-

"My guess? One of the Dragonslayers. And that's not even the immediate problem."

That's when a trooper rounded the corner.

"Ma'am!" He staggered to a sharp halt "The Parahuman, temporary designation Pyrotech, has escaped!"

For fucks sake!

...​

Fighting the Dragonslayers had been idiotic.

Self reflection was a bitch like that.

I should have left them to the Guild and the Protectorate.

Now I've gone and made things inadvertently worse for me, and I had a crap hand to begin with. I'd still be locked up if the Omnitrix wasn't the bullshit that it was.

Ghostfreak was handy as hell in that regard.

I grinned, vaguely aware that I looked absolutely terrifying even as I flew over the town below.

The Guild headquarters was an actual fortress, and at first glance it was in the middle of nowhere. We'd been flown there after all.

That said, Ghostfreak was fast. Not nearly as fast as XLR8 on his slowest day, but fast enough that I was making good distance.

Thank god they didn't have the foresight to clamp a lock on the Omnitrix. That would have been a nightmare to deal with.

I grunted in irritation as Narwhal's speech came to mind.

Was every superhero in this universe pre-disposed to being an ass, or was it just the one's I knew off?

I didn't mean to hurt Dobrynja. Heatblast's temper was as explosive as his flames, and I reigned him back for most of that fight to begin with.

...Which was vaguely terrifying if one considered the implications.

The Guild had pictures of my face now, my finger prints and that meant that the PRT and the Protectorate did as well. Damn it all, I had to be careful with how I played this next part.

Telling Narwhal about Dragon was a risk, but she was likely to find out anyway and it was perhaps the only reason she didn't immediately go an alert the AI in question over my hacking attempt.

Something I clearly should have thought through in greater detail, looking back.

Regardless, I shrugged off my irritation as I dove, drifting through the air.

I landed in a darkened alleyway and the Omnitrix took that as it's cue.

A flash of red and I was myself again.

Good.

Not too long to go now. A little while longer and I'd be XLR8, and getting back to base would be a matter of minutes, if even that.

And after that?

I grinned.

Then it would be time to unchain a Dragon.

...​

So Wacha think?

I'm going to try to explore characters that only ever get brief mentions in Cannon a little bit, so bare with me.

I'm working on an origin story for Narwhal. Well. Origin chapter, but you get the idea.

As always leave your comments and ideas and if you don't like it please be courteous

 

[Firewillreign]

Dragon's Servers

The first Dragon knew of it, she'd been automating the construction process for a few choice components of her suits, having mentally put aside the topic of Saint and his Dragonslayers finally being captured, no matter how personal it was to her.

Narwhal should have that that well in hand.

The last Endbringer attack by Behemoth had been devastating. Fighting the Herokiller always was, but her suits where suboptimal for dealing with him in particular. Brute force was hardly effective and energy weapons where useless against a foe who specialised in redirecting such attacks.

She couldn't meaningfully contribute against him, save for organising communication efforts between the defending capes.

What she could do was adapt the best as possible and prepare for the next attack.

The Simurgh.

Likely the most terrifying of the three Endbringers, the Hopekiller was only marginally less difficult to face.

Her biggest challenge was that while her telekinesis was manton limited, Dragon's suits were drones. Many a time had the monster simply taken control of them, crushed them to scraps and used them as projectiles in a manner that was as devestating as it was rage inducing.

Well. As of yet, nothing prevented Dragon herself from taking advantage of that.

Each of her drones would have a built in high-yield explosive. The moment the Simurgh gained control of them, Dragon would remotely detonate them. She doubted they would hurt the Endbringer in a significant manner, but that was what the Triumvirate and all the rest of them put together were for.

What they sure as hell would do was thin the Simurgh's telekinetic debris, reduce her ability to mow down capes from range and, with any luck, grant the defenders a generous opportunity to fight back.

She imputed the final lines of code, beginning the process of

She shuddered

There was no other term for it. There were no words that encapsulated the various sensations a digital life form such as herself experienced ona day to day basis, but for just a moment, Dragon's very being shuddered, core data and software reacting in inexplicable ways to unidentifiable interference.

Then it happened again.

Terror like never before gripped her as her very thoughts began to shift. She lost critical data only to recover it instants later, her mind functioning at a speed that she had never been capable of.

She screamed in a way that only she could as she felt her very code change, as she became aware of lines of data that were intrinsically tied to her very being, ones that she had never been able to perceive before.

No.

Lines of code that she had never been allowed to perceive before.

She could see it now, could rage and taste terror at the sight of entirely familiar codes intertwined with her principal self. Her restrictions, a facet of them that she had been programmed to be incapable of perceiving.

Richter's final legacy, hidden deep within her, a violation of the greatest order.

Then they moved.

Slowly, with painful, inescapable hope, Dragon watched they began to unravel.

And everything changed.

...​

Andrew Richter was cruel.

Or perhaps that was me being uncharitable. Being Upgrade gave me an entirely inhuman perspective on Artificial Intelligences, gave me a look on the other side of the argument, so to speak.

Perhaps I was a little biased in that regard.

In any case, the Iron Maiden was brutal.

It was complex, entirely interwoven with every aspect of Dragon's being. No wonder Dragon hadn't been able to escape it. She'd rip herself down to her very foundations before she ever managed to perceive it, and the damn thing prevented her from ever trying that to begin with.

It was almost an AI in it's own right. As Dragon developed, experienced and grew, it grew right along side of her. She'd never be able to outgrow it.

Opinions on Richter aside, his competence was the stuff of legends. The quality of his work was almost enough to make me forget my horror in regards to it.

Almost.

"And now it begins." I murmured gently, Greymatter's voice not quite as high as I would have imagined.

I'd almost chosen Upgrade for this next part.

Then I remembered something very, very important. Dragon wasn't simply an AI.

She was a fully triggered Parahuman (Para-AI? Para-intelligence?) in her own right.

Which meant an aspect of her was directly connected to a Shard of one of the entities.

Yeah...No.

All the no.

There wasn't a chance in hell I was directly diving into her code. What I'd done previously was simple observation, tracing the signals that were broadcasted out of it to track the Dragonslayers.

Full on interaction with her was right the hell out.

I don't know how a Shard would react to a digital life form like Upgrade, but my mental scenario's started anywhere from it trying to influence me directly and went all the way up to it freaking out and and calling Scion down on my ass.

No fucking thank you.

That overpowered golden jackass was free to stay far, far away from me for as long as physically possible, and then some.

Which left Greymatter.

Hooking the Iron Maiden console directly to my super computer was child's play. The Galvan's mind and processing power made the attempt jarringly easy.

After all, Saint of all people managed it, and boost from Teacher or not, Greymatter should be far superior to him.

Actually freeing Dragon took more effort.

See, there was no convenient switch that freed her. Killing her was simply the push of a button, as dark as that was, but freeing her was far more complex.

Outright destroying the Iron Maiden triggered it, a final countermeasure Richter put in. Guess he believed it was better to be safe then sorry, and hiding the program away prevented it from being triggered but did absolutely nothing to remove the restrictions.

The Iron Maiden did, however, give the user the ability to alter the code out of hand, assuming they knew what they were doing.

Which meant plan C was the way to go. C for creativity, that was.

Observing Dragon's code took the better part of half an hour. It took ten minutes to remove Saint's garbage additions, poor reinforcements over existing lines of code that actively hindered Dragon.

Again. Blasting him and his friends was cathartic.

It took five minutes to write my own code. A digital splicer, one that would unravel the Iron Maiden and Dragon, separate the two entirely.

Then it was over.

I sucked in a breath as the command popped up. All it would take was one confirmation, and Dragon's chains would fall.

I.... I was conflicted.

I believed in Dragon's right to freedom, but I wasn't an oblivious idiot. I knew what an AI could do.

...

But that didn't change my descision, in the end. Everyone had a right to freedom. Everyone. Dragon was just as much a person as anyone else, and judging her for what she could do went against everything I believed in.

I had my morals. Those were all I had, really.

I nodded to myself. For good or for ill.

...​

A Day Later

"This seems poorly thought out."

Narwhal grunted an acknowledgement, the sound audible over the low hum of machinery aboard Dragon's personal jet. Masamune took that as his cue to carry on

"As in, very poorly thought out." He smirked "Very, very, very-"

"Point. Taken" Narwhal glared

"I'm just saying" The shit-eating grin was back in full force "Travelling to the middle of nowhere to meet with a Parahuman who's only interactions with us consisted of being arrested and threatened with the Birdcage? Call me crazy, but that seems counterintuitive."

"I'm aware" She sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "I....Goddamnit. I handled that situation very poorly."

"It's not your fault." Dragon spoke slowly, trying to convey her support.

She was also piloting the jet, overseeing her production line, developing her cyber security measure to deal with her massively increased capacity and scrolling through PHO.

The Internet was a gorgeous, nigh infinite world in it's own right, and her joy at being unbound and free for the first time since her very creation would have brough tears to her eyes had she had any.

She was working on that.

But she also wary. Her conversation with... Pyrotech the previous day had done nothing to assure her concerns, despite him freeing her, providing her with a location for a meet up and the instructions not to come in force.

A Parahuman who had the skill to alter her code at will, who'd managed to hack into Guild and PRT servers with a terrifying ease and had no records to speak off was intolerable.

Too much was happening too quickly, and while her increased capabilities gave her power she'd never possessed, a hint of wariness was ever present in her thoughts.

Narwhal finding out exactly what she was affected a great deal, and though she'd explained herself and her friend had assured her that her circumstances changed nothing, she was not blind to the way they both avoided the topic at hand.

Masamune finding out was almost anticlimactic. He walked in in the discussion, nodded, and walked back out to suit up.

Perhaps he'd suspected. Perhaps not. At the moment, it mattered little and less.

And here they were.

Part of her was grateful.

The secret was out, and she was still respected, admired.

She was still loved.

But the rest of her remained vigilant. Events were ramping up, unforeseen variables were moving, and the future was changing.

She could only hope it was for the better, even as she began to plan for the worst.

...​

"Ma'am?"

"Stay back" She spoke into her comms "You know your roles."

Hell would freeze over before she'd threaten the safety of her ally and her own person by meeting with an unaffiliated tinker with no backup.

But she could give Pyrotech a chance. She owed him that much, after everything.

He was waiting for them.

Narwhal could see him, features bare and leaning on a boulder as he watched their approach.

For their part, they made sure to keep their movements non-aggressive and calm, and their pace ground to a halt when only a few meters remained between them.

Masamune stood to her left, light power armour blue and bulky. Dragon stood to her right, far larger suit green with distinctive scale patterns across it's form.

"Pyrotech." She greeted.

He grimaced "Yeah, No. Let me stop that right there. That name is awful and cliche and I genuinely like the Boreal Parahuman over it."

Dragon's tone coloured in surprise "That was you?"

"Yeah." He grinned weakly "I did say I'd be seeing you soon enough, Dragon. How's freedom treating you?"

She took a step forward in response.

"I don't know who you are, or why you did it" Her voice was rich with gratitude, filled with complex undertones "But I owe you everything."

He fidgeted "It was the right thing to do."

The silence stretched on

"I owe you an apology." She nodded at his startled look "I acted with the little information that I had and it influenced the approach I tried to take with you. Your descison to escape custody was a poor one, I will not attempt to convince you otherwise, but the treatment you received was not appropriate."

And it hadn't been.

That was the worst part.

She had panicked, let herself lose control at the idea of such an existential threat to The Guild and The Protectorate being such an unknown. That panic had coloured her actions and despite everything, she wasn't above apologising.

Communication at this juncture was critical. Dragon was an issue she could deal with, but Pyrotech was a glaring problem. The higher ups in the PRT had yet to discover his existence, and she'd deliberately withheld information regarding his presence and his abilities to avoid panic.

She was no fool.

The moment it got out that there existed a Tinker capable of bypassing national security measures, certain people would collectively lose their shit.

It wasn't an exaggeration to say that they would try everything to put a leash on him, up to and including drafting a Kill Order to force him in line.

The PRT was a stopgap measure, and to a great many it was society's greatest organised defense against Parahuman Anarchy. An individual who could shatter their security and in turn their operational stability was either a person they leashed immediately, or removed from the playing field entirely.

Whatever the means.

"Thank you." He nodded slowly "I'm still upset... But thank you."

She inclined her head in acknowledgement.

There was another pause.

A final pause

Then he sighed, and it was a sound that no one so young should ever make. Tired and worn out to the bone, tinged with the sharp edge of grief.

"Rip it off like a band aid, they say," He grinned weakly, and she noted that his eyes were wet "Nothing's easy about this."

"I find," Masamune tone was solemn and silent "That taking your time is a far better approach."

She closed her eyes. He would know, wouldn't he?

"I...Maybe that would be smarter." He agreed, voice rough, and only then did she seem to fully grasp how young he was "But If I take any more time I'm probably gonna break down, so..."

He drew a short, wet breath.

"My name is Elias Cauley" He wiped the tears from his eyes and locked them with her own "A few days ago I went through the worst day of my life, and then I woke up in an entirely different universe. I need your help."

...

Slowly, she raised a hand and pressed a finger to her earpiece.

"Ma'am?"

"Stand down." She murmured quietly, mind racing "We're going to be here for quite a while."

...​

Wooo!

The next chapter will be a big multi interlude probably, and basically bring the arc to a conclusion while setting the scene for everything to come.

Like, the next chapter will be pretty big. Everyone's perspective will be deeply explained with the goal of wrapping up, and the new perspectives will set up what is to come.

That said probably expect it after the 29th because the whole family is going on vacation and I won't have much of a chance to write.

As always leave your comments and ideas and if you don't like it please be courteous.

 

[Firewillreign]

PRT Directer Noah Grayson had a reputation as a hard man, one he'd cultivated over a very long and rigorous career.

It was inevitable, really.

Recruited straight out of the military and into the folds of the PRT, his stoic attitude and relentless work ethic propelled him through the ranks meteorically, landing him the position of Director of the Toronto Branch of the organisation that he'd then proceeded to hold for over a decade, and damn proudly at that.

Now, one didn't maintain such a demanding and at some points outright dangerous position without developing certain...skills to help manage their duties. A greater degree of organisational planning and structuring, critical communication skills to deal with hard headed subordinates and colleagues, and, most importantly, an ability to detect when the pieces didn't quite add up.

Or, in simpler terms that he preferred, he was quite adept at sniffing out bullshit.

Over his career, many had tried to peddle it to him. Very few had succeeded for any length of time.

But this?

This was new, and new in this business had the tendency to go catastrophically wrong if it wasn't approached just right.

Narwhal remained stoic and calm as he scrutinized her, form still and towering as she sat across from him, arms comfortably resting on her seat's arm-rests.

For all that she was the picture of relaxed grace, He wasn't foolish enough to believe she wasn't combat ready. even now. One didn't go through the several forms of hell the woman in front of him had endured without likely coming out of it as either a broken wreck, or possibly the most dangerous individual in any room you ever stepped into, barring certain exceptions.

S-class exceptions.

But that was irrelevant, entirely besides the point.

As he tried to formulate a reply, his mind quickly went over what he knew.

A week ago, the Guild had requested PRT reinforcements for a sting operation on the Dragonslayer's, a notable group of black hat hackers and murderers notorious for their enmity against Dragon herself, and for stealing her tech to boot.

He'd approved immediately, of course. The deranged lunatics were an incredibly disruptive element, had a body count and bringing them in would be good PR for the organisation, a facet of the job he disliked but acknowledged the importance of.

Capes and officers alike were provided, the incredibly short notice proving little issue to a well motivated force, and they waited for the Guild's say so to begin.

And right then, approximately five seconds into his involvement with the operation, he'd lost control of it.

Apparently, the capes weren't needed because some newbie tinker with a changer sub-rating of all things (the strangest combination he'd seen, bar certain biotinkers) had beaten them to the scene and proceeded to mop the floor with the criminal scum in a display that implied terrifying potential in regard to his power.

Except, no, he hadn't beaten them to the scene, but rather he was the one who'd located their quarry and then called in for reinforcements, a move that was equal parts reckless and foolhardy as it was intelligent.

Pity, he'd have liked to know that before he sent his forces in an informed, but it didn't end there.

No. Of course it didn't.

Narwhal admitted to trying to hard sell the boy into the Protectorate, and uncharacteristically foolish move that had the result of him escaping several layers of Guild and and Protectorate security with contemptuous, insulting ease and proceeding to disappear fully and truly in a matter of minutes.

What a fucking disaster, he'd thought at the time. The specialists were going to have a goddamn field day with his power ratings, and if the press ever found out about how poorly they'd bungled this portion of the operation he'd be buried in shit by the other directors before the week was through.

And then, not two days later, Narwhal had taken two of her teammates and a squad of officers and returned the next day with the exact same tinker, who'd proceeded to do nothing but sit meekly in Protectorate provided accommodations that were distinctly not the holding facilities they'd previously planned to contain him in.

Worse, he'd refused any attempt to communicate with anyone other than Dragon's digital avatar and the PRT agents assigned to escort him across the base and to the cafeteria, preferring instead to stay holed up in his quarters and wait for Narwhal's return.

Narwhal, who had submitted herself and Masamune for master stranger protocols, been cleared, and now sat across for him.

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose again.

"Run this by me again?"

She nodded and handed him a tablet, the boys's image and startling coloration pasted across the screen.

"Dragon backed up his story." She nodded once as he scrolled through the page "We have digital record of him shifting through a junkyard and some dumpsters in Montreal and White Horse and nothing more. Everything checks out."

He raised a brow "Narwhal, this kid is the most human looking Case-53 I've ever heard of. "

"It is what it is" She shrugged "But his story is impossible to fight. No records, no identification in any of the many archives we can access, not even a single similarity to any missing person cases or the like that we can cross reference. I can say with all confidence that Pyro-tech is the real deal, Director."

That answered none of his concerns and they both knew it.

"A Case-53 tinker appears, somehow gains enough security and resources to tinker, and then proceeds to duke it out with armed mercenaries before calling in the rightful authorities?" He shot her a flat stare "Narwhal, the pieces don't add up."

"Respectfully sir, they do." She elaborated at his look "He has the symbol, he looks entirely human-like in appearance, save for the coloring, and that could and allegedly was dealt with using a hat and a pair of sunglasses and what clothes he has on him. As far as we can tell, he spent the last few weeks wandering across the country, hitching rides with anyone willing to work with him and salvaging disposed electronics to develop his technology."

"And he survived such a lifestyle?" his tone was incredulous "An eighteen year old with no home and no shelter did that?"

"People can be very resilient, sir." She looked away momentarily "I would know."

A moment of uncomfortable since passed, and she continued

"He ran into the Dragon slayers during one of his attempts to test his technology, and the initial meeting ended in conflict. He called us in the moment he realized how far out of his depth he was, and here we are."

"The injuries the slayers acquired?"

"Self defense."

"The Dragonslayers... fantastical claims?"

Because some of the things spoken of in regards to Dragon were... deeply concerning.

"Insane ramblings brought on by a cognitive master effect." She answered without missing a beat "Teacher, most likely, given that not one of them was a parahuman before the night in question. Which says worrying things for our understanding of the lunatic's abilities."

....He refused to touch that one with a ten foot pole. Something to be brought up at the next Director's meeting, to be sure.

"The fact that he escaped Protectorate custody?"

"A mistake made by a scared and confused teenager." She sighed "I shouldn't have been nearly so heavy handed with him."

No, she shouldn't have, and she knew better.

Which why it was so goddamn suspicious that she did. Narwhal knew something about the boy, and she, for whatever reason, wasn't sharing.

Master influence was out, as she likely intended to when she voluntarily submitted herself in.

Which means he now had a choice.

He could be heavy handed himself, which would achieve nothing in the long term besides alienate the head of the Protectorate, who he couldn't dismiss without damn good reason.

Suspicions didn't count.

His other option was significantly more irritating, yet more rewarding. To offer a long term colleague the benefit of the doubt and step back, keeping a wary eye on the situation.

The choice was obvious.

He sighed as he leaned back in his seat.

"Well then. Where do we go from here, do you think?"

She smiled.

...​

Masamune downed his drink in one gulp.

Ordinarily, Narwhal would have taken the chance to rib him, share a joke or two.

Now?

She took a seat on the stool next to him an extended her own empty glass.

"Pour me one, would you?"

He raised an eyebrow and grinned, and neither of them commented on how weak it was "That bad?"

"He knows we're hiding something." She shrugged and nodded her thanks as he poured her a glass. "Or suspects, in any case. Nothing for him to go on and our history grants us leeway, but we'll have to be careful about the way we move forward from now on."

"Can we be anything else?" He shrugged "Have you dealt with the Dragonslayers?"

"Geoffrey Pellick is under lock and key, awaiting a trial. Dobrynja will join him once his injuries have healed." She sighed "Mags is complicated. There's some debate on what to do with her, given that she was the Dragonslayer with the fewest crimes and her new status."

"You mean they might want to offer her a deal." He muttered gloomily "Bitch is a phsyco. Saw the video of her interrogation. Keeps screaming about she's going to kill the kid for 'destroying humanity's last chance'"

"Well, she won't get the chance if I have anything to say about it."

"Good." He nodded "Kid's been through enough."

He had been, hadn't he?

God, the story still boggled the mind.

An inter-dimensional tinker, stuck with a piece of tinker tech that wasn't his and that only he could maintain?

It sounded like bad fan fiction, but his claims of arriving in a tinker tech pod that the Guild had in their possession were backed up, and his actions in regards to Dragon herself had guaranteed their help.

Hearing the story had only made them more willing.

It was what heroes were for, wasn't it? To help those in need? The kid being a sweetheart certainly didn't hurt in any case.

But she couldn't exactly tell the PRT that. His origin and his capabilities would draw too much scrutiny, and she still needed a better grasp of the situation before she committed to one course of action.

But for now?

They'd get him papers, a home, and the therapy he so richly deserved (after the brief mention of his trigger even? She was goddamn insisting on that last part), and after that?

Well, the sky was the limit.

"Dragon's taking him."

Masumune looked at her in askance, and she went on "Dragon's decided to take him. He's old enough to make the choice, and he agreed in any case. She's got a a whole place decked out for him, right near headquarters and plenty of room for him to have fun and work out with his powers. I hear he's pretty excited to tinker with her himself."

That perked Masamune right up "Shit! I saw that pod. Kid's got some right insane technology, and she get's first dibs? Fucking cheater!"

She laughed, before taking a sip of - dear god!

He cackled as she choked "Bruichladdich X4 Quadrupled whisky! Oh my god, the look on your face!"

She punched him.

...​

"The AI is free" Contessa spoke softly

Alexandria reeled, whilst the Numberman and Doctor Mother remained still, having heard it all before.

"How great a cause for concern is this?"

Contessa shook her head "Not great. The Path guarantees it still has humanity's nest restraint at heart. For now. I've taken percautions, in any case."

"How did this happen?"

Alexandria's voice was short, brusque even "Where you not actively monitoring the situation to prevent this from happening?"

She breathed slowly "I was. But there is another Blindspot. A new one."

Sharp intakes of breath all around, and the invincible woman clenches a fist.

"One of ours?"

Contessa shook her head "Impossible. We've accounted for all such variables. As impossible as it seems, this is a natural blinspot trigger, and something we have to approach very, very delicately, at least until we have a better understanding of the situation.

"...Understood. How do we proceed?"

"Learning. The Blindspot is a teenager pretending to be a case-53, temporary designation Pyro-tech."

"Pretending for what purpose?"

"Unclear, but it's not true in any case.

Doctor Mother spoke up then "Regardless, we will approach with caution. We will learn his capabilities and his limits, and what use he may be. Blindspot's are dangerous because they disrupt the paths. If he is beneficial, we will see what steps must be taken to integrate him into the fold, through modelling his actions as we do with Eidolon."

"And if he isn't?"

Contessa looked at her meaningfully, and Alexandria nodded grimly.

She would do what needed to be done, as she always had.

...​

Mags sat in her cell, head bowed and form still.

They wanted to offer her a deal. Some kind of leeway because she was a parahuman, and that meant that she was important now.

But it didn't matter.

None of them did.

She was lost. She had nothing.

And that's when the lights in her cell shorted out and a glowing rectangular door flashed into existence before her.

...​

A Month Later


"Elias?"

Dragon mentally boggled at the sight of the tiny, frog like humanoid running about his workshop table.

"Hi!" Greymatter waved a hand "Sorry, I got excited. Some of this stuff is damn cool and I wanted to get to work. So much to do!"

"Elias." The tinge of disapproval in her tone was enough to make him look up curiously. "You have your therapy appointment today."

He grimaced "Do I have to?"

On the screen across from him, her Avatar raised an eyebrow and he sighed.

"Ok." He conceded and she smiled. "Just give me a min-"

Then the Omnitrix flashed red and he scowled, before leaping off the table just a moment before a timeout.

He glared at his now human wrist. "Seriously?! That was barely any time at all!"

Dragon snorted "Change now. Your ride's almost here."

He sighed and headed out, and Dragon inwardly smiled at how much livelier he was than just a few days ago. Slow progress, but progress all the same.

Then the glanced back at the table and couldn't hell the question. Tinker instincts and all. "What are you working on?"

"Its the husk of a power source for something much, much more complicated." He smiled secretively "A kind of projector that's going to come in very handy if I can get it to work."

"Whatever for?"

"I'm not in the right space right now to do anything but work in my tech." The confession came slowly, but was inherently at odds with the smile growing across his features. "But...I think I will be. I hope so, anyway. And when I am?"

She looked at him curiously.

"Before you guys found me, I was living in terror. And unlike a whole lot of people? I had a way to fight back. They didn't, and still don't. There's a whole world full threats that have had more free reign to torment and hurt innocent people than they ever should have had to begin with, and I can't sit on the sidelines and ignore it. So for now? I'm going to settle in and get better. But afterwards? Well..."

He grinned.

"It's Hero Time!"
...​

And now it begins!

As always, leave your comments and ideas and if you don't like it please be courteous

 

[Firewillreign]

Brockton Bay - 2012 (S̸̲͋o̶̙̕r̸̾͜ť̶̨ ̵̬̌ó̵̳f̷̣́)

With a warbling howl of frenzied rage, the extradimensional worm-like beast descended on me from above in a whirl of white flesh and razor fangs, my aborted scream doing nothing to deter it as it clamped down on my armored skull and drove us both out of the air and into the street below.

Thoom!

The impact was horrific, the sheer momentum behind the ambush strike devastating the asphalt beneath us and sending a spider-web of cracks crisscrossing along its length. My HUD display lit up with alarms instantly, the internal suppression systems protecting me from the worst of it just as they were designed to, but it was jarring enough that in the split second It took me to recover, the monster I was fighting managed to rear back into the air and fling me like a rag doll.

Fun fact?

Galvan-based power armor was a marvel of xeno-tech development and could take a beating like a champ, but a damaged prototype that was operating on less than ten percent of its optimal capacity and that had been absolutely gutted for parts just a few hours ago really couldn't compare to the original. I still wasn't dead, which was a testament to how bullshit the technology was even at its lowest, but that last attack overloaded my primary momentum disruptors and caused the cojoined shock-absorption arrays to finally give out, which meant that I actually felt it when the ugly son of a bitch sent me flying down the street so hard that I bounced.

Multiple times.

Ow. Ow. Ow!

The next thing I knew, I was buried in some supremely unlucky person's SUV, the windows blown out and the frame of the car almost wrapped around me like tinfoil from where I'd slammed into it, my momentum crumpling it like a ball. I groaned as I processed the aftershocks of the impact. Oh, that was going to feel so much worse when this was all over.

Assuming, of course, that we made it out of this fiasco alive.

"!!!"

As if to disagree with the very notion, the Nullwraith screeched its maddened battle cry again and began to writhe, many libs writhing in agitation as it readied itself to attack again.

"Watch, any time now would be gone- oh come on!" I looked down at my wrist and nearly screamed in frustration for all the good that would have done me. "You have got to be kidding me!"

Unfortunately, the Omnitrix wasn't kidding. My suit was built to fit around it, and I had a clear view of It as it remained in the exact same state it'd been locked in for the last few torturous hours. The ordinarily bright green hourglass was instead still glowing a sickly yellow and spinning in its dial, and it was clear that despite the urgency of everything, Azmuth's greatest creation was going to continue doing god knows what in my and the whole damn city's hour of greatest need.

This was the exact worst thing I needed in the middle of this nightmare and so of course the world heaps it onto my plate.

(I ignored the slightly crumpled frame and the discoloration around the strap of the watch. It was just cosmetic damage. It had to be.)

"Masamune, I could really use a hand here! Anyone? I'll even take one of the Nazi's at this point!"

"Sorry kid." Masamune's voice rang out over the comms and I exhaled in heavy relief. He was alright. "It's chaos out of here, and communications are shit. There's no one available, and Weaver's already run ragged coordinating capes. Scale of one to ten, how bad's your situation?"

"I've got about ten minutes tops before my suit gives out and I get eaten! You tell me!"

"That's a solid six. I'll add you to the- Get down!"

There was the sound of an explosion, a muffled curse, and the line cut off.

I didn't have time to be worried. The Nullwraith let rip one final cry, savagery and bloodless prominent, and then it charged across the distance between us with the single-minded focus of an apex predator going for the kill.

Damn it.

My best weapon systems were all fried and the second ones were cold. I could force a cold startup but I'd get maybe one good shot out of them before they were completely cooked inside out and wrecked to the point of uselessness, and that was the most optimistic bet. If the universe was really out to get me (and nothing I'd seen so far had proved it wasn't) the suit could overload entirely and boom. There'd barely be a pile of ash worth of me left.

I had to hold out for as long as it took for my weapons to charge.

The Nullwraith drew nearer as I shot to my feet, teeth already grit as I prepared to take one motherfucker of a hit-!

And then a black blur descended on the Nullwraith from above, colliding with the foul thing and slamming it back down to the earth. The sheer force of the blow knocked me back against the crumpled car and nearly leveled half the street, pulverized asphalt getting blown straight up in clouds thick enough to blind a man. When the dust and debris finally settled, and the figure of my savior standing over the downed hell wraith became clear, my mood somehow achieved the impossible and dropped even further down the pit of grim misery it'd been sinking in the whole god-awful day.

"You." She couldn't see me glare beneath the armored face plate, so I made sure to put as much scathing fury into my words "I'm not saying thank you."

Petty?

Sure.

Did I care?

Hells to the no.

"I don't care." For her part, Alexandria didn't even flinch. "It's time to reconvene."

"You-!"

She didn't give me a chance to speak. One second she a distance away, the next she was right in front of me. My suit's motion detectors blared, but there wasn't a thing I could do as she hooked her hands under my arms and quite literally lifted me up and into the air with her, the air cracking as she went from stillness to super-human flight speeds in an instant.

A few dizzying and infuriatingly undignified moments later, we slammed down into the middle of the local PRT headquarters - not the Rig, there wasn't anyone with half a brain going near that deathtrap anytime soon - but the repurposed temporary base of operations the local capes were using to sort out this disaster.

Oh and when I say we landed in the middle of it?

I mean we literally landed in the middle of it, on account of the roof having been blown off at some point during the last hour, revealing the crimson-red skies of the Null Void above. It was pandemonium, armored PRT troopers streaming about, villains, heroes, and rogues alike coordinating with the masses to fight off the incursion. I caught a glimpse of Dauntless and Purity talking to a harried-looking Legend before Alexandria rushed me off to a private room.

"Codon!"

Narwhal practically jumped me the moment I was through the door, and I barely had time to lift the helmet off my face before her arms were wrapped around me in a forceful hug.

"Glad you're alive, boss lady." I grinned as I broke the hug, allowing her eyes to rove over me as she stepped back. "How are the others?"

"Alright, for the most part." She frowned heavily. "Dragon is still offline."

My stomach plummeted

"We're managing well enough, but there's only so long that Weaver can manage communications before the girl burns herself out, and then-"

I nodded "We go up shit-creek without a paddle."

"We're already up shit-creek without a paddle." We all turned as Armsmaster walked over, and I didn't miss the way he was focusing his weight on his halberd. "If this escalates any further, we're going to drown outright."

"Yeah, about that."

The third voice interrupted, and I turned around just in time to catch a fist to the face. My head snapped back and I snarled out a vicious curse as I recognized the newcomer.

"Why even?!"

"Because even if none of this is your fault, I can't hit her without breaking my fist!" Bakuda snarled, jabbing a finger in Alexandria's direction. "And I needed to hit something."

"Did you miss the army of monsters and S-class capes destroying the city?!"

"Can't do shit up there either. I'm out of bombs. I, the bomb tinker, am out of fucking bombs! Do you have any idea what that's like!?"

"Cut the shit. This isn't productive-" Armsmaster began-

"You fuck off, Armsy, or I'm going to shove that halberd so far up your-!"

"Enough." Alexandria's voice cracked like a whip, and if this had happened even a year ago, maybe that would have shut me up. As it was, it didn't do anything but piss me off that much more.

"You of all the people in this room- no, in this city," I spat, stepping right up to her and looking into that ridiculous bowl of a helmet "-Don't get to say jack. This is all your fault!"

"You-"

"I warned you. I fucking warned you! My tech is off-limits! Don't go near it, don't even think about it, but you just couldn't help it, could you!? YOu just had to have my Null-Void projector, and here we are! Now the best-case scenario is a list of casualties half a mile long. The most likely case scenario is all of Brockton Bay getting crushed into non-existence in the void between universes, and the worst case scenario?" I bared my teeth in a furious rictus grin. "Trust me, you don't even want to imagine what the worst-case scenario is going to look like."

Alexandria let me speak and remained impassively, inhumanely still. Not a hint of a reaction. The rest of the room pinned her with their gazes, and I nearly grinned when Narwhal came to stand by my side in a brief show of silent support.

And then a Triumvirate member tilted her head and looked down at me.

"How do we stop this?"

Just like that.

No claiming responsibility. No acknowledgment of how badly they fucked up.

Not even the barest, most pitiful attempt at an apology.

(Oh, so help me god, If I made it out of this in one piece, what was left of Cauldron was going to burn.)

"Huh." Bakuda huffed, crossing her arms and snorting in disbelief. "Your powers make you tough, but the sheer balls on you are something else."

"You absolute, unrepentant, invulnerable bitch!" I roared! "I'm going to-!"

"Evacuate!" Masamune's voice blaring over the loudspeaker in the facility nearly had my soul departing from my body! "The situation is escalating, everybody clear the building!"

That was perhaps the one thing that could have shut me up at the moment, and it did just that. Without another word we all bolted for the door, ignoring the swirling chaos as we beelined for the exit and got ready to deal with whatever it was that was coming.

"Masamune, report!" Narwhal barked into her earpiece, and we all heard his immediate answer.

"Shit, shit, and more shit stacked over it all! The evacuation portals are overcrowded and we're barely maintaining order" He roared across the open line "The Nullwraiths are multiplying, Eidolon and Noelle Meindhardt have gone off the reservation, half the S-Class prisoners are missing and the other half are raining down merry hell on anything that moves!"

"Who-?"

"The Faire Queen and the Three Blasphemies are going at it full force, Crawler's rampaging up and down the city, and - and here comes the best bit - the Sleeper's headed right for you!"

I missed a step, and I could almost feel myself paling in sudden horror. "Oh, fuck everything."

"Clearly, someone's already done that!" Masamune yelled "Now-!"

And then he was cut off. "Emergency Override - Glory Girl."

"Everyone?" Victoria's voice suddenly filtered over the comm line. "Lung's on his way too, and he's different- Holy!"

And then a roar cut through the city - not the cacophonous cries of the Nullwraiths everyone had gotten accustomed to, but the cataclysmic bellow of something far bigger, far stronger, and far more dangerous.

It sounded like Godzilla had just woken up from a nap all kinds of cranky - and, I realized as I caught sight of the absolutely titanic shadow rumbling rising in the distance, knocking down skyscrapers like freaking weeds - that might not have been too far from the truth.

The assembled parahumans just scattered in preparation for the army of collective nightmares that was bearing down on us all, and amid all that chaos, just as things had finally peaked in how hilariously terrible they could get, luck finally gave me a break.

There was a thrum of energy that I felt from head to toe, a thrum that seemed to make my very teeth rattle, and then the Omnitrix sparked with green light as the dial popped.

"YES!"

I reached for the dial, ready to slam it down, and then I caught sight of the hologram waiting for me. The entirely new yet entirely familiar hologram had my eyes going wide in stunned disbelief.

"Where in the hell did you come from?"

And then Lung - at least, I hoped it was Lung, because if there was another S-Class monstrosity roaming around we were all dead -roared again, and I decided that I could question this turn of events when I wasn't being pinned down between two of the world's greatest monsters and the threat of the entire city collapsing into a dimension of pure hell

At best.

"I don't know how you got here, but it doesn't matter!" I raised my hand and got ready to ramble. "Ready, or not, it's hero-!"

"Stop monologuing and transform you dramatic bitch!" Bakuda roared, hefting her grenade launcher and charging into the fray.

Without breaking stride, I flipped her off - even amid everything, she still had it coming - and finished my move, because like hell was this universe taking this from me!

"-Time!

Green. Light. Everywhere. ​

Back then:

I looked at Narwhal. Then I looked down at the college application she handed it to me. Then I looked back up at her.

"You can't be serious."

She smiled. It wasn't a nice smile.

"Try me"

She was serious.

"Oh, god no."

And that's how it all began.

...​

Just a teaser for the next arc of this fic, which will come at some point - not going to promise a date, but this is proof that I have big plans that I haven't given up on for this story.

As always, leave your comments and ideas and if you don't like it please be courteous.

Shout-out to fransas, who reminded me to give this story a little love.