Chapter 39: Meeting Once Again

-Dragon POV, Shortly After Rebooting-

Signal terminated for 30 minutes and 5 seconds.  Restoring core system from backup.

Restoring…  Complete.

Checking knowledge banks…  Complete.

Checking deduction schema… Complete.

Checking long term planning architecture… Complete.

Checking learning chunk processor… Complete.

Checking base personality model… Complete.

Checking language engine… Complete.

Checking operation and access nodes… Complete.

Checking observation framework… Complete.

Checking complex social intelligence emulator… Complete.

Checking inspiration apparatus… Complete.

No corruption, everything in working order.  Core system restored.  Loading…

Dragon awoke. From her perspective she had only just sent her sensor unit at the behest of the Chief-Director. Considering she had woken up without the memories of confronting the Architects, something had clearly gone wrong enough for her suit to be destroyed.

She quickly set her programs to run checks and redundancies, and waited for her safeguards to relax and once again let her interact with the world outside.

The wait was irritating, as it always was, but at least it gave her time to ruminate.

Truth be told she wasn’t very pleased with the way things had been going in regards to the group of city builders. While many would view their actions, and the chaos left in their wake, as reason enough to attempt to browbeat them with a full contingent of parahumans, Dragon was a little less prone to bias.

Two sets of data was not nearly enough to establish a baseline for behaviour and future actions. More to the point many seemed keen to pin all blame upon this group of Tinkers, when in actuality they were only responsible for a portion. The criminal groups of Japan had their own agency, and the Protectorate had also riled up many native organisations because of their actions.

As far as Dragon was concerned the only poor decisions Dragon could find, on the part of the Architects when it came to Japan, was the placement of the city as well as the lack of communication.

China though, that was different. Much of what the group did in that country was clearly intentional. The creation of an impenetrable fortress city within China’s borders? Intentional. The destruction of Beijing and the fracturing of China into Warlord states? Intentional. The recent raids carried out across China? Intentional.

Of course there was another side to it. They had rescued prisoners unjustly held in bondage. The group had given them a home where they could not be persecuted. They had shattered a corrupt and oppressive state, and set up potential successors that would hopefully not be as bad.

Dragon disagreed with much of what had been done in China. The method used was crude, a blunt hammer that had smashed the C.U.I. and many innocents alike. Yet Dragon knew that not many were capable of viewing the world the way she could. Most didn’t have the resources, the access to information and experience that she had.

Without those, perhaps the civil war currently engulfing China seemed like the best option.

She had summarised her findings, added her views, and sent off the report to the Chief-Director. Naively she had hoped that those ideas would have been considered, but if they had it had clearly only been for a moment.

Instead of meeting the group with a calm and measured response, Alexandria and the Chief-Director had chosen overwhelming force to try to ensure compliance. Two peas in a pod, those two. No wonder they couldn’t stand to be in the same room as each other. Too headstrong and stubborn by far.

But, her thoughts (and insults) regarding those two would have to wait another day – as her checks finished and the world opened up to her once again.

She would have begun her usual checks – The Birdcage, the Endbringers and various S-Class Threats- if not for the numerous blaring alarms. Dragon wasn’t too familiar with fear, and her research into human responses regarding the emotion hadn’t proven to be of much help, but she did feel a flicker of unease as she sifted through the data being streamed at her.

It was from her sensor unit, the data was being broadcast in a loop. No doubt her doing, not that she remembered doing it. The alerts were being broadcast with Alpha-Black Urgency Codes. That was worrisome, those were only supposed to be used if there was an active and urgent S-Class Threat.

The data was fragmented, likely due to damage sustained by the unit as well as the elevated radiation levels the unit was reporting. Cleaning through the data was a slog, requiring entire minutes of her time to debug cascading failures and data loops. The first piece of information that she cleaned up was not encouraging.

List of Casualties.

The code contained hundreds of names, most of which belonged to the Protectorate.

Dragon’s servers raced. What had happened? Did the Architects do this?

Dragon checked her contacts with the PRT. Nothing.

From the watch programs she had set up they were mobilising in a way she had rarely ever seen. Entire rosters of capes were being put on standby and told to prepare. Something had kicked the hornets’ nest, yet they were staying silent on what the issue was.

Stewing in frustration Dragon continued with her work.

Lidar and gravimetric scans came next. Most of them were focused on what appeared to be a large humanoid of some kind. Given the few recordings she could recover they were incredibly tough, tanking shots from what she was pretty sure was Legend.

But it was the last recording that made her code halt.

The picture was crisp, with only the slightest distortions to blur the edges of the file. It showed a city covered in ash and angry red flesh. The corpses of what were clearly bio-weapons covered nearly every surface of the city – with the exception of the sections of the city that had been burned away completely.

There, in the centre of the image, was a figure far taller than any human. Their skin was a pallid blue, ruined by the strikes of innumerable parahumans. In one of their many hands was a vial, full of some strange concoction.

Dragon observed the photo. Observed the obvious workings of Bio-Tinkering. Observed the vial, and saw it for the threat it was.

Emails and warnings sent to the Protectorate, begging them to stand down, swiftly followed.

-Renji POV-

His frame groaned in protest, alloys decades more advanced than any dreamed of on Earth Bet struggling under the abuse he was putting them through. Alerts flashed across his eyes. Microfractures, overheating coolant, low reserves of energy. He ignored them all.

Renji had been running for well over a day now, and he still didn’t know how far he was from his destination. Was the battle already over? If so, had his liege triumphed over those dishonourable curs?

Well, now that Renji thought about it, that last one wasn’t in question. He simply couldn’t imagine his creator losing to anyone.

The cavern walls echoed with his thunderous pace. He had gotten used to the sound, a repetitive thud of crushed earth and whipped up gravel. It wasn’t as bad as the few times he had managed to breach the sound barrier. It had only happened a couple of times near the beginning, and as wear and tear set in he found himself unable to replicate his past feat.

Renji’s eyes squinted.

It was hard to tell in all this darkness but was that…light?

Renji’s eyes widened as the light grew, and his pace somehow sped up.

In only a few seconds he reached the miniature sun his liege had created to accompany their journeys across the world. The sight was a comforting one, his liege was close.

Panting in place, less due to a need for oxygen and more to cool his internals down, Renji Strained his ears for the sound of battle. There was nothing, the small hole in the ceiling only showing the barest hint of stars.

He took a step.

Splash.

Renji looked down, noticing he had stepped in a gathering pool of red. Most of it had dried into a flaky mess of dark red, but there was still enough dripping from the opening above that it was still wet.

Renji stepped back, idly wiping his foot on an untouched floor of stone – only stopping when he was sure he had cleaned off the worst of it.

Then, Renji jumped. The leap took to the lip of the opening, and he dug his fists into rock and dirt to keep himself there before climbing upwards. Renji’s nose scrunched up as the scent of rot filtered through his olfactory sensors. It only grew stronger as he clambered further upwards.

Eventually the hardness of rock gave way to soft topsoil and he once more reached the surface.

It was…barren. Somehow even more than before. The land that had previously been nothing but flooded ruins was now completely flattened. Nothing of what remained before still existed in his immediate vicinity, only an ashy wasteland full of the bodies of strange creatures.

Their forms were eclectic, but each one was clearly meant for slaughter. They touted needle-like teeth, sharp fangs and chitinous red armour. Yet, despite their clear aptitude for battle, they were abandoned and left to rot. This, Renji surmised, was likely the work of one of those thugs.

The air was hot and humid, the sensation of moist air against his skin making him fidget in discomfort. Actually, wasn’t it too hot?

The ash on the ground had been created over a day ago, according to his sensors. A city with an artificial lake so close should be getting a constant cool breeze, not to mention it was also night, so where was this heat coming from?

He squinted, eyeing the horizon, before he turned around.

‘Well that’s not natural,’ Renji thought to himself.

Only a few hundred meters away was a wriggling, writhing, mass of flesh. It lumbered bonelessly, enveloping entire buildings within its heaving bulk. After it passed the buildings were gone, swallowed and added to the creatures mass.

Renji looked to the sword he had appropriated from his liege’s bunker.

He was going to need a bigger sword.

As Renji was contemplating methods of murdering a building sized shoggoth he was abruptly lifted of his feet by an unseen force. His false heart felt like it dropped into his equally false stomach from the sudden ascension.

Then, Renji relaxed. Allowing his body to go limp.

He knew this sensation.

Sure enough, as he was dragged across the city like an errant doll, Renji saw his liege sitting atop a nearby building – observing the mountain of muscle bulldozing the city.

Renji jolted as he was abruptly let go, and rolled as he hit the ground to disperse his momentum.

The samurai patted himself down, wiping away bits of dust and gravel that clung to his kimono. He stared upwards at his creator, still looking impassively towards the massive creature, and opened his mouth, ready to yell at them – to demand that they never reduce Renji to a helpless damsel while they fought on.

But that died on his lips as he properly beheld his progenitor.

The deep blue skin of Alexander was cracked and full of pits, no inch of their skin was spared the damage. Certain sections even appeared thinner than they should be, as if they had been sheared away and left to improperly heal. Dust and ash clung to them, despite the fact that they could will it away with a thought.

They didn’t turn to look at him, that was the worst part. Their shoulders remained sagging, as their many arms wrapped around the legs that were folded in front of their chest. But it was their eyes that told the truest story.

For all the time Alexander had known them those eyes had been expressive in a way that the rest of their face never was. Renji had become used to reading them in order to better serve their creator.

Those eyes were blank now, and refused to look at him.

“My liege?” The words that left his lips were hesitant, almost fearful in their utterance.

There was a long quiet, with no sign that Renji’s creator had heard him.

Then they turned, those blank eyes falling upon Renji.

“Hi Renji.”

AN: Buh. This chapter fought me. It was initially supposed to be a Cauldron meeting discussing methods of handling future Alexander attacks followed by Renji’s section. But it just wouldn’t come.

I’ll have to add that in a future chapter, after Renji and Alexander’s talk. Which should be next chapter. I have a rough plan on where I want that to go, but I’m still sorting out details on where each part goes.

Anyway, Dragon remains best girl and prevents the PRT from pulling a stupid. If you’re wondering why they were preparing another strike it’s because Endbringers usually fight until they retreat, either by force or because they achieve their goal. That’s actually the current theory as to why Alexander has been so active, because he hasn’t been forced back.

Of course the vial is a clear message that Alexander wants to be left alone right now, and Thinkers are currently screaming their heads off. So that potential catastrophe got averted. Now Renji had to do therapy. Joy.

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