Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard

Malibu, Thur 6th Jan '22

I awoke to the sound of my alarm emitting from the bedside clock the next morning, I had decided to set one after yesterday's little work out. Flying came naturally to my Dragoness mind it seemed, once given access the large open space anyway, I got the hang of it relatively quickly. I spent all afternoon and into the late evening practising and was satisfied enough with myself that, although I was no master, I could definitely fly, even Sarah agreed when she eventually rejoined me and watched me for a bit. Afterwards she had taken me back to the mansion, fed me and otherwise left me to my own devices, but I had decided that bed was a good idea seeing as I had tired myself out so well. This morning though I silenced the alarm at 08:00 then headed out to find Sarah, she wasn't in any of the main house as far as I could see, so I headed for the garage, 'Probably where I should have looked first to be honest', I thought to myself. My search was soon over as I rounded down the spiral stair case.

Sarah: "Oh, morning sleepy head." She said looking over at me from one of the workbenches.

Me: "Morning. What are you doing?" I gazed at the odd intricate shapes of metal framework, wires and unknown pieces she had strewn around in front of her.

Sarah: "Well, last night, I thought I'd make a start, this is as far as I got."

Me: "You've been up all night?"

Sarah: "Yeah, pretty much."

Me: "Aren't you tired??"

Sarah: "Meh, not really. Since I found out about SkyTech, I will only sleep, like, 2 or 3 nights a week, might as well make use of the time eh."

Me: "This really bothers you, doesn't?" She downed her tools and gave me a disapproving look as I walked over to her, enough to make me stop in my tracks.

Sarah: "I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer." She stated turning back to her work.

Me: "Sorry." I said genuinely.

Sarah: "Don't worry about it..." She replied without turning her head, plugging in some connectors. "...Oh hey, got something for you." She leapt off her chair to the workbench that ran along the side of the room, moving some random parts, that belonged to goodness knows what, to one side with a sweep of her arm. She had certainly been busy through the night, these workbenches were completely clear yesterday, now they seemed full of clutter. "... Ah ha! Found them, buried them by accident." She presented me these 2 odd looking devices, both looked pretty much the same. Barely half an inch thick, but each was about 3 inches long by an inch or so wide. It looked like a combination of circuit boards layered on top of each other with multiple wires and connectors protruding from the underside and black diamond tops to them.

Me: "Oh... thank you... you shouldn't have... what are they?" I asked somewhat embarrassed as I felt like I should know what it is.

Sarah: "Upgrades... for the one you already have?"

Me: "What one that I already have? Sorry I don't follow-"

Sarah: "The device in your back, the regulator? Remember I said that the one you have was only a prototype?"

Me: "Oh yeah... Soo... why do I need 2?"

Sarah: "Well... this one..." She presented the one in her left hand more prominently "...Is a straight swap for the one you have now, but It's less complex, more powerful yet more efficient and when I made the prototype you have, I had doubts regarding it's long term reliability, but I constructed it in a hurry so all things considered and the fact that you're still alive tells me that I did alright."

Me: "Okaaay... you say more powerful, but what is it powered by?"

Sarah: "A plasma core."

Me: "And what's one of them?"

Sarah: " *Sigh* It's a self sustaining, renewable energy producing device."

Me: "A renewable energy source?... Why have I not heard of them before?"

Sarah: "Because I only recently made them."

Me: "So... This could, what... Replace coal fire power plants? Nuclear energy?"

Sarah: "No, not yet."

Me: "Why not? This is something the world desperately needs."

Sarah: "The world's not ready, that's why."

I paused, trying to work out what she was on about,

Me: "Sarah... Pollution... Global warming... This could turn-"

Sarah: "No!..." She snapped, cutting me off, "...*Sigh* Alex... I understand completely what you're saying. But there are power hungry people out there... They could turn the future of energy into a future of weaponry... I can't let the world do that to itself... Remember what I told you yesterday? I don't want to end up being the cause for the problems of the next generation, please you have to understand where I'm coming from." I slowly nodded after hearing this.

Me: "Ok, ok, I get it... But why is it so special? What makes it renewable?"

Sarah: "Well, once it's jump started it uses its own energy to create more energy by passing plasma through coils, which then gets multiplied, passes through the coils and so on and so on... it self regulates as well by connecting and disconnecting coils as and when required, once the internal capacitors reach... well I could give you the technical numbers jargon, but to be honest it even bores me and I don't want to confuse you..."

Me: "Oh thanks."

Sarah: "You're welcome." She mocked with a smile.

Me: "I thought plasma was white, why is it the disc or core thing shows red and purple?"

Sarah: "Err... That's residual energy from the jump start."

Me: "Right, ok, I'm no science guy, or rather, gal, so that make sense, I suppose... So you say it need's a jump start?"

Sarah: "Indeed."

Me: "And I guess jump leads and a car battery won't do the trick?..."

Sarah: "Correct, to jump start one this size I would need to sap the power from North America. If I was to jump start one that was capable of powering a continent, not that that would be impossible to make, I would need the entire worlds energy production as a jump start."

Me: "So how did you get these ones started?" She made a really long pause while staring at me,

Sarah: "I can't tell you right now, we'll see how you get on, when the time is right then maybe I'll tell you."

Me: "I'm supposed to be trusting you..."

Sarah: "Exactly, and I'm asking you to trust me to tell you when the time is right."

Me: "Ok ok, fine... so come on then, what's the other one for?"

Sarah: "The other, is interesting, because it doesn't have it's own power supply, it still regulates you, but it is merely an interface."

Me: "But it needs some sort of power source though... right? To keep... Well... Regulating me?..." She pointed over her shoulder to the pile of metal, wires and components that she was working on earlier, "...and that is?..."

Sarah: "That, is the start of your new armour, which has a larger plasma core built in..." I partially stood up and gave an uncertain look over her shoulder to the scattered pieces, "...Oi, give me and it a chance!"

Me: "Ok, sorry. So what's next?" waving my hands apologetically.

Sarah: "Well, some of these pieces are ready to be assembled, so we'll start on that, I won't swap either of these out yet until we're a bit closer."

So I helped her connect some of the pieces together, only as per her instructions though. I was thankful that my past experience of working on cars as a hobby had given me a technical mind, I had actually missed 'tinkering' and fabricating things.

__________

About an hour later, we had put most of the pieces together that we could, it was all just framework for now, no armour but it 'is a work in progress' Sarah kept telling me.

Sarah: "Right, we've done what we can now..." Closing the hatch down on the only piece so far that had any sort of covering, that being the back piece. "...right, get on that table." She gestured over to the stainless steel one I had been on a few days ago.

Me: "Cor, so demanding..." I mocked with a smile as I walked over to and climbed up onto the table.

Sarah: "Yep, now lie down please." She said, pushing down on my shoulder, pulling a lamp in overhead.

Me: "Oooh, a 'please'!... just a little of the top please." I jokingly asked.

Sarah: "Oh you wish you had hair." She replied as she started learning over my back.

Me: "Actually, I don't, it's something I haven't missed at all actually, the up keep of hair that is..." She sniggered but didn't reply. "...what are you doing anyway?"

Sarah: "I'm swapping out your regulator." I heard the familiar click and the faint hum appear as the device had opened and I looked over my shoulder to see what she was doing.

Me: "Hey, go careful, Sam shocked and burnt himself bad by touching that."

Sarah: "I know, I read the report and saw the footage of your cell, you're both idiots for messing around with this... If he had knocked this out of alignment, even just a little bit, you could be dead by now."

Me: "Erm... He he... Oops?"

Sarah: "I'll give you 'oops'... besides, unlike you or Sam, I know what I'm doing. Anyway, sounds like you don't miss being human?"

Me: "Well I don't... I mean... I do... oh I don't know, it's hard to explain."

Sarah: "Try me." No sooner has she said that the hum died out, and I felt... I didn't know how to explain it, suddenly lethargic?

Me: "Whoa, what have you done?"

Sarah: "That's the regulator shut down, well, on standby mode anyway, I need to do that to remove it."

Me: "But I just suddenly feel completely worn out, when I haven't even done anything?"

Sarah: "Shows that it works then eh? Now imagine what will happen to you in about 24 hours. Anyway, you're changing the subject, what's hard to explain?" I sighed before replying,

Me: "I miss being a guy, with my fiancee. And although that facility, that 'prison', was hell, I was able to do things I could only dream of doing when I was human. I mean, this new body, it's so agile and graceful yet lethal and strong... I'd miss it for those reasons when I change back... I mean, if I ever could be changed back, not that I can now, I know... Don't mind me, I've just got to get out of that mindset. Does that make sense or does it just sound weird?"

Sarah: "No, it make sense, and I wouldn't say weird, but certainly an interesting opinion you have. But I've got to ask as well, how are you adjusting to the feminine life?"

Me: "It's certainly different... It's certainly otherworldly when your whole life you are the 'giver', so to speak, then bam, you're the unwillingly the 'taker' twice in such a small time frame."

Sarah: "I am sorry about that Alex."

Me: "About what?"

Sarah: "What they put you through, especially the second time when I was there."

Me: "Why are you sorry, you weren't the culprit? You weren't to blame."

Sarah: "Well no, but all I was told was they were having issues with you, but by the time I realised what they were doing to you, I was horrified, with no direct contact with Crystal, I had to let her basic sub routines in my watch do the hacking, which are nowhere as quick as Crystal herself. I wish I was able to get to you sooner."

Me: "Well, that's all fair enough, but still not your fault. And more importantly, you released me, you got me out, which, come to think of it, I still haven't actually thanked you for, so... Thank you, for setting me free and for everything you're doing now." She paused and looked over to me, gave a small smile,

Sarah: "You're welcome..." She yanked the regulator on my back, pulling the innards out, analysed it for a moment then presented it to me. It was certainly bulkier and looked more complex than the one she had showed me earlier. "...out with the old..." She threw it blindly over her shoulder and smashed on the floor somewhere behind the next workbench. She got up, stepped over to the long workbench, picking up one of the new regulators and returned to my side, "...and in with the new." She finished, as she clipped it into the housing on my back and started connecting it up.

Me: "You never told me Sarah, I mean, I haven't seen anyone else around the house, are you single? No significant other of which to speak of?"

Sarah: "I've had my first boyfriend when I was 12 and I have had the odd steady relationship since, but never anyone serious or long-term. Being rich and smart, every one I get close to just seems to stab me in the back... So no, I'm not with anyone, I try not to get too close to anyone these days."

Me: "I won't stab you in the back, I promise."

Sarah: "That's... that's nice to hear, but I wasn't refering to you, I was referring to relationships."

Me: "Ahh, well, not all guys are assholes to their significant other, I certainly try not to be to Kayley."

Sarah: "I wasn't referring to just guys either."

Me: "Oh... So you er... Like girls as we-"

Sarah: "Yes I'm Bi." She abruptly cut in.

Me: "Well... that's fair enough. Can I ask an even more personal question then? More like your opinion actually. Can you make that bi thing work in a, erm, same sex relationship?"

Sarah: "What you're tryna ask me, is that if you get back with your missus, will she, or maybe even you, still be craving dick? There are toys you can use yeah, but in my own opinion, no, there's nothing quite like the real thing, that's why my lesbian relationships never lasted, I still ended Up having... 'cravings'. Otherwise the main reason I like women is because of their mindset, their thoughtfulness. Men are mostly just ignorant pigs... No offence."

Me: "None taken."

The fact that she hit the nail on the head as to what I was asking, was somewhat annoying, but I also didn't like her answer, but only because it was exactly what I DIDN'T want to hear.

Sarah: "That oughta do it." She started stepping back, thankfully changing the subject.

Me: "But I still feel... Lacking in energy." I stated while sitting up on the table.

Sarah: "Well yeah, that's because there's no plasma core in this interface unit, the core is in the armour. So, let's try it, step up onto the platform." She said, somewhat excitedly. I did as she asked, walked over and on to the platform but in the time it had taken me to get over there, she had ran 3 pieces of the previously assembled framework over onto the platform and continued to collect more of he scattered pieces. In the mean time looked over my shoulder at the device, seeing that it looked pretty much the same from the outside.

Sarah: "Right, now..." She started, as she brought the last few pieces over, sounding slightly out of breath, "...I can open it, but you can also control the casing now, so can you open it for me."

Me: "Erm, how do I do that?"

Sarah: "Well, 'will' it to open. It's attached to your nervous system and therefore your mind."

Me: " 'will it to open'?" I dubiously asked.

Sarah: "Yes, now come on." I sighed and shook my head, I looked back over my shoulder again at the device as Sarah stepped up on the platform beside me. I stared at it, wanting it to open, but it didn't.

Me: "I can't do it." I looked back at her, shaking my head.

Sarah: "Erm, look... I designed this to be as natural as possible, think as less of an add-on to you and more of a part of you." I thought back to how I first used my tail blades, or how I was able to breathe fire, then thought about it more scientifically. They're a part of me, controlled by muscles, which were controlled by impulses from the nervous system, I closed my eyes to concentrate yet relax. So all I wanted was the hatch to open, so all I had to do was just get my body to do something naturally and-

Sarah: "That's it!..." Her sudden excitement made me jump, but I looked over my shoulder and sure enough, the hatch had opened, but not in the triangle pieces it had done before, actually, there was no hatches at all, or rather, they had folded out of the way. "...thank you..." She stated as she lowered the large piece on to my back. "...it should just line up and... *SNICK* ...ahh, there." Piece by piece she assembly the frame work onto my body, interconnecting them as she went. In the end everything but the last 3/4 of my tail, my hands and the base of my elongated feet and my face was covered in bands of metal framework and wiring.

Me: "It's very stiff to move." I stated, merely trying to reposition my stance.

Sarah: "That's because you're fighting the servos because the suit's not on. Now again, you should be able to control the suit using your mind and bring it online."

Me: "erm, ok..." I concentrated like I did before, using will power, I wanted this thing to switch on and sure enough it did, I heard a slight hum emit from my back, presumably as the core came online and I felt the servos resist me less.

Sarah: "Yes yes! Now stay still, just for a moment!..." she said excitedly, leaping off the platform and heading for her desk, taking a seat and staring intently at the monitors. "...Crystal, are you monitoring?"

Crystal: "Yes ma'am, I have been recording telemetry since initial start up."

Me: "You're tracking me?"

Sarah: "Just feedback, don't worry about it... raise one arm for me?..." I did as she asked, raising an arm out in front of me, "...Ok, good, ok back down for me..." I did so, "...Ok, now take a step forward." I did so again, but it still didn't feel right.

Me: "I still feel like the servos are dragging little, like each time I move there's a split second hesitation, then it eases off a bit, still drags through out the rest of the movement... if that makes any sense?"

Sarah: "Hmm, It may still be calibrating to you. Take a step off the platform for me and walk that way." She gestured over towards the garage door without even looking up from her screens. Again I did as she asked, walking around her Camaro on her lift. With each step I noticed it actually was getting easier, the assist delay got to the point of being barely noticeable and the resistance became next to nothing, in fact, it started to feel like there was nothing on me at all.

Sarah: "How does it feel now? Any better?"

Me: "Very much so." I flexed my body and muscles, trying to make sure it was learning my full range of movement.

Sarah: "I think we can chalk that up as a win." She smugly stated with a smile, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed.

Me: "Indeed, just need some armour on it now and we're ready to take on SkyTech."

Sarah: "Yeeeaah... steady on, you have a basic operating systems, but that's it. There's a lot more gear I need to put into it yet, then testing... It's not going to happen over night.

Me: "Yeah... I know..." I replied depressingly.

__________

We spent some more time doing motion tests, then realised that neither of us had eaten, so she got me back out of the suit, swapped the interface regulator back out for the new upgraded - self powered - unit, so that I could walk around again without pretty much feeling the need to fall asleep. Initially we sat at the table to try and eat, but thankfully and although I tried my best not to make it obvious, Sarah could tell that my long form and tail was causing me an issue with not being able to sit in a chair comfortably. So not long after we started eating, she moved us to her lounge, where I could comfortably lay on the sofa with my plate in front of me while Sarah had sat in one of the other sofas, with her dinner plate on her lap. We ate in silence with the TV on the news channel, it was so weird to watch... Right now, one of the biggest atrocities was happening in human history. 

People, like me, being kidnapped, turned into, well, essentially alien killing machines, brainwashed and trained up to be sent on black ops missions and this news anchor was waffling about last night's football game, completely unaware of our existence and how dangerous we are. My mind wound back to what had happened to Bruticus... What I had done to him... I hadn't even given it a second thought until just now... I killed him, and not even humanely, I ripped him to shreds, right up until his last breathe and then some more. I was a savage animal, taken over by primal instincts and now, here I was, laid on the sofa, eating a dinner sedately with a friend, who, if I went animalistic again, wouldn't hope to stand a chance of fending me off... and that fact was was bothering me. I waited until she had a finished for a few minutes before I asked her anything.

Me: "Sarah?..." She turned her attention from the TV to me, "...why do you trust me?"

Sarah: "What do you mean?"

Me: "That first night you untied me, you had no way to defend yourself and yet there you were, right beside me, setting me loose. Moments before that I chased you through the garage. And I mean, even before that, the last time before that you saw me awake, I brutally killed someone, another Dragon, and yet you seemed to have no fear at all around me. How did you know I wouldn't hurt you?."

Sarah: "I just... I don't know, I just trusted you, like I had a gut feeling that you would be alright." I simply acknowledged with a thoughtful "Hmm." There was a silence between us for a bit before Sarah spoke again.

Sarah: "What colours are you going to want?"

Me: "Sorry?" Distracted by my thoughts.

Sarah: "Your amour, what colours do you want?"

Me: "Oh... What are the options?"

Sarah: "Anything you want." I gave it a few moments thought before replying, a bit of a smile creeping over my face.

Me: "I kinda liked the colours on that old armour, black and red, reminds me of my old car too. But to have the black as a gloss rather than a satin, and make the red more pronounced and all over, like angled lines or something? Not just 6 stripes sort of thing."

Sarah: "Say no more." She smiled.

_________

Malibu, Fri 7th Jan '22 08:00

My alarm woke me again the following morning. I stretched and pulled myself out of bed, got myself showered and ready,

Me: "Morning Crystal, where's Sarah this morning? Please tell me she slept."

Crystal: "Good morning Alex, Miss Jarvie is currently in the garage, she slept for 1 hour and 26 minutes last night in her desk chair in the garage while I fabricated some armour plating for her." I sighed at finding out she hadn't had a proper sleep again. I had an idea though, hopped out of bed and headed for the kitchen, talking to Crystal as I walked.

Me: "Do you not push her to sleep at all?"

Crystal: "I have in the past made her such recommendations, to which I was met with some choice obscene words. So I have not since made any similar recommendations."

Me: "Ahhh..." I replied, thinking that I could indeed imagine that being Sarah's reply, "... Crystal, why don't you use contractions? You know, like, 'I've' or 'haven't' or 'it's'? You always seem to use the full wording."

Crystal: "Being an AI, I have a full database on all Human and Draconian languages. However, how and when to correctly use certain styles of a language, for example, a contraction, is difficult for me to process and use of contractions inappropriately may cause confusion, so the best idea is for me to not use them at all."

Me: "I see..." I stated, arriving in the vast kitchen, standing up on my hind legs at the worktop and rummaged around for everything I needed, utensils from the drawers and ingredients from the fridge.

__________

I walked down the spiral staircase, serving tray in hands very cautiously... This is the first time, as far as I could remember anyway, carrying anything fragile while standing upright in this body, combining that with walking down spiral stairs, needless to say I was worried. But I made it to the bottom without dropping anything, finding Sarah hunched over one of the workbenches with her back turned working away on something.

Sarah: "I was wondering if you were even going to get up today..." I placed the tray down beside her and she looked over to the 2 plate fulls of a full English breakfast with cutlery, 2 glasses of orange juice and serviettes "...did you just...? Did you make that?" She asked, sounding astonished and looked up at me.

Me: "Yeah, why do you think I'm 'up late' ?" I asked, grabbing a plate off the tray and placing it in front of her, she smiled and nodded in approval, taking the cutlery as well.

Sarah: "Well, erm, thank you. What's the reason behind this?"

Me: "Just as a thank you." Taking my own plate and stepping to the long workbench that surrounded this side of the room, which I surprisingly was much clearer than yesterday.

Sarah: "For what?" Tucking into her first mouthful.

Me: "For trusting me, saving me, and giving me a chance." She smiled between chews and we carried on eating. I was nearly finished when I glanced over to the platform, seeing a large box shaped frame and hanging from it on cables and wires was, what I was guessing, was my armoured back piece, coated in gloss black and a few red accent lines.

Sarah: "Looks good right?..." She asked me, noticing my stare. "...we'll try you in it in a bit... But I want to finish this lovely breakfast first."

________

Sarah: "Ok stand under the back piece on the platform." She directed as I pulled myself off the table after we just finished swapping out the regulator for the interface version again, Sarah was a bit quicker at doing it this time, clearly getting use to it. I dropped to all fours as I stepped onto the platform and and ducked under the back piece, minding the other various pieces of armour scattered around and immediately Sarah stood next to me to lower and guide it into position, with me making sure I put my wings through the slots in the armour.

Sarah: "I designed it to pretty much line up it's self..." I felt it lining up with the interface on my back and latching in with the same *SNICK* sound.

Me: "Do you know what this all reminds me of? This whole set up of you building shit in your garage, Crystal, you, this armour?"

Sarah: "What do you mean?"

Me: "This is like bloody Iron Man!..." She pulled a confused look at me, "...Oh come on, Marvel? MCU? Robert Downey Jr?..." She slowly shook head at me "... seriously? You and Crystal are just female versions of Tony Stark and his AI Jarvis..." She still just stared at me blankly, only raising an eyebrow this time. "... seriously, you REALLY need to watch it."

Piece by piece was added after that, each painted gloss black with the occasional red accented lines, Sarah connecting and bolting each part to the last using special locking keys. It took a short while but the final piece to go on was the helmet, all enclosed as I had requested. She walked towards me with the helmet showing the front to me... The little kid in me got excited seeing it, mostly triangular to follow the shape of my head, the same red accented lines that lead in a mostly horizontal direction towards the back of the helmet, to line up with those on my neck, tracing down my body. It also had large black domed lenses for eyes which had a slight red tinge to them as well.

Sarah: "Now, bare in mind the rest of the armour is bolted together on you, we have to do the reverse procedure of what we just did to get you back out, but your helmet is the only piece that you can detach when you want for now ok? Are you ready?"

Me: "Gimme." I said excitedly, she turned the helmet in her hands. So it was the right way and placed it over my head and stood back, I looked through the lenses, it was quite dark actually but I faintly heard Sarah speak,

Sarah: "Bring it on line then." She said with an impatient smile. I willed it to come on, just as I done with the bare frame before, I heard a faint hum increase then I heard a click as the helmet latched on. The lenses in front of my eyes came alive, depolarised, allowing the correct amount of light through for me to be able to see properly. A basic HUD appeared on the lenses, including a compass, a readout on my body functions, a readout on the suit's functions, it automatically identified Sarah in front of me with a name tag that disappeared after a few seconds, a series of 0s and 1s scrolling down the left side which stopped after about 10 seconds but no sooner as it had my head was filled a warm fizzing sensation and I was startled by the familiar cold synthetic voice in my ears,

Crystal: "Hello Alex."

Me: "BAH!... Crystal, you scared me, what are you doing in here?"

Sarah: "We spoke about using a copy of Crystal for the security hacking routines..." I heard her say, now as clearly as if I had no helmet on at all, "...the more systems I decided to link her to, the more I saw how advantageous she could be for you. She can increase the efficiency of every function of the suit, everything you do, she can improve the output of the suit. For example, if you were to take a jump, you will jump only so high, in the suit without Crystal, you will jump the same height, as increased weight and drag will decrease your height but the servos will help increase it, balancing it out. But with Crystal's analysis and input you will jump higher. She can improve endurance by easing load, improve your reflexes as well and potentially pull life saving moves if she senses something you don't."

Me: "So she can control my armour with me in it? Like a puppet? I don't like the sound of this..."

Sarah: "To an extent, but no, not like a puppet, there's certain restrictions that inhibit her taking full control, not that there would be any danger of such a thing anyway."

Crystal: "I can assure you that I have no desire to control you to such an extent, Miss Jarvie has merely requested for me to assist you in any way I can."

Sarah: "Give me a report Crystal, how are we looking?"

Crystal: "All systems are operational and reporting back at 100% efficiency ma'am."

Sarah: "Good. Alex, want to fold your wings away?, you look a bit daft with with just them hanging out." She mocked.

I looked over my shoulder, or tried to anyway... I had full movement, there was no restriction there, but the restriction was in my vision, the helmet and the lenses didn't allow for a full field of vision.

Me: "They are folded, I think... I'm not sure, I can't see my back."

Sarah: "I was worried about that... I'll work on a fix for that. We'll see what else needs improvements first. There are compartments I made to tuck your wings away to become air tight and to protect them in a fight..." I pulled my wings in a bit more, feeling the compartments she was referring to, then closed the compartment covers over the top. It felt odd as I twisted my body, I could feel the compartments flex around my long wings with my movement. "... that's it. Now, how about taking a run Alex, do a lap of the property and come back and let me know how it feels. Crystal, open the garage doors please." The door opened as she had requested, revealing what looked like a level of a multi storey car park beyond that I hadn't seen before, filled with all sorts of cars new and old, including some proper classic motors, along with pick ups trucks and a couple of vans as well and at the end of the lot, another garage door opened, revealing a ramp and a sunny day beyond.

Sarah stepped aside gesturing me past, I stepped off the platform, going careful to make sure I didn't stumble off. I started into a canter, then into a run as I hit the underground car park, then a full on sprint as I hit the ramp. Crystal highlighted a line on my HUD, a route for me to follow around Sarah's property with a "% complete" beside it. A speedometer also appeared on the bottom right corner of my display. I watched it as I effortlessly increased my pace, it felt the fastest that I had ever run, even in my Draconian form, but it was now hovering around 56 miles per hour as I rounded the fence that surrounded the property. I gave an excited laugh at the power and speed that I had been unleashed with. It was a large property and even barely half way round I still wasn't even remotely out of breath. I slowed and stopped at the back of the house after seeing a large swimming pool behind the main building. 

Me: "Crystal, are we water tight?"

Crystal: "Checking pressure seals... confirmed, ready to submerge." I ran towards the pool, aiming for the deep end and cannon balled myself in. I opened myself out after I hit the water sinking straight away to the bottom of the pool, landing on the floor. I looked around, breathing absolutely normally under water.

Me: "This is so cool... Crystal, we still water tight?"

Crystal: "Pressure seals confirmed operational."

Me: "Awesome, so hypothetically, how long can we stay down here?"

Crystal: "Oxygen scavengers are fully functional, even with your current air intake we could remain here for up to 7 hours before we'd need to resurface."

Me: "That's pretty awesome... Let's finish that run." and I made for the steps to leave the pool.

__________

I cantered back down into the garage,

Sarah: "And?..." Her voice emanating from behind her monitors as she stood up over them.

Me: "This... is the coolest thing ever!" I said as I willed the locks of the helmet to undo and I removed it from my head.

Sarah: "Shame there's issues."

Me: "Issues?"

Sarah: "As you noticed from the off, your vision is restricted, your helmet is cumbersome when it's off and loose and as soon as you jumped in my pool you sunk."

Me: "But it didn't leak?"

Sarah: "No, but you sank, if you landed in the Alantic Ocean and had to walk your way out it might take a while by which point you would be dead from lack of oxygen or more likely the depth and pressure would crush you and there'd be nothing you could do. Plus there's a load of other issues I'm not happy with, some feedback I was getting wasn't good."

Me: "Oh ok... But honestly Sarah, it works well despite those niggles you found." She looked unamused at me, trying to force a smile on.

Sarah: "Ok, how about this, there's a SkyTech facility near Barstow on the list, about a 3 hour drive from here. It's only a small site but you can see what you can dig up, it might only be the same as what we know already. Tonight I'll get you close, make your way in, get what you can, get out, maybe ruffle some feathers on the way. See if you can find any other issues with it and we'll brainstorm from there agreed?" I nodded in reply.

(-Aerosmith)