Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard

Malibu, Sat 15th Jan '22 21:00

Me: "Sarah, I've got a question." I stated, my jaw resting on the workbench as Sarah pulled at my back, swapping out the regulator for the interface version again.

Sarah: "Hmmm?" she replied inquisitively as she pushed the interface version into the slot with the usual click.

Me: "Why don't you make one of these suits for yourself? But you know, a human version. You'd be just like Iron Man."

Sarah: "You still on about that?..." She chuckled,

Me: "Yeah, it's very relevant... please tell me you've watched it now."

Sarah: "Nope."

Me: "Seriously? You're missing out."

Sarah: "Unfortunately I don't have time to watch kids films lately, the majority of my time has been spent baby sitting you."

Me: "Well that's rude... and anyway, they're not just for kids, the MCU is for all ages, even my bloody grandparents love the films!"

Sarah: "They do huh?"

Me: "Yeah... and oi, you've changed the subject, why not make a suit for you?"

Sarah: "Because..." She leant beside my head with my self powered regulator in hand, "...I don't have one of these."

Me: "Yeah, but you don't need one of those, that's the regulator right? Just because I have that... Problem. But you just need an interface surely?"

Sarah: "The neural load is too much for a Human brain... I have to admit, I have been surprised you've taken on as much as you have without complaints of headaches and things, I've had no negative feedback from Crystal either about the neural load on you."

Me: "Oh... but so Dragons can take it? I mean others potentially?"

Sarah: "Yeah, so... don't get caught. I don't want this... Weapon, because essentially that's what your suit is, winding up in the wrong hands." she said half playfully half serious.

Me: "I have no plans to rejoin that prison, let me assure you." Sarah downed tools, stepped back and headed in the direction of the platform.

Sarah: "All done, come on, let's get you ready for your date." I rolled my eyes as I stepped off the workbench,

Me: "It's hardly a date is it? Let's be honest."

Sarah: "Uh-huh."

Me: "One, I don't even know her name, Two, she did try to kill me, I don't tend to ask attempted murderers out on dates and Three, most importantly, I'm spoken for." I explained as I stepped up into the usual spot on the platform next to Sarah.

Crystal: "I believe Miss Jarvie is doing what is known as 'Winding you up'."

Me: "Yes, thank you Crystal, just making my point to her." I looked over at Sarah while she grinned from ear to ear without looking at me as she positioned my back piece on. Piece by piece went on, each latching and winding itself onto the last. Again, the open helmet being the last piece to go on, latching into place.

Sarah: "Right, I've topped up the nutrient packs, refilled your ammo as well... tell me again what you carry." I racked my brain for the the answer,

Me: "80 rounds of 9mm in each arm, 3 40mm explosive rounds for the grenade launcher, and 8 cartridges for the 12 Gauge... Not that I need to remember, as I can call up ammo read outs on my HUD eh?"

Sarah: "Doesn't hurt to keep count. Remember as well, the weapon pods are detachable, so should you need to... but I'd rather you didn't just randomly leave them lying around please, remember the Xanthium is not of this Earth and I only have a limited quantity of it."

Me: "I won't don't worry..." I looked at the time, seeing it said 21:27, "...I had better make a move, I don't want to be late."

Sarah: "You'd have at least another 20 minutes if you were to use your jets." she winked to me.

Me: "Ermmm... no." I smiled while getting of the platform and headed for the garage doors that I opened by thought of simply thinking and asking, 'Crystal, open the garage doors please'.

Sarah: "Hey..." I stopped at the door and turned back to look at her stood by the desk "...good luck." I smiled back at her.

Me: "Hey, with this awesome bit of kit you've built for me, I'll be fine..." I smiled still at her, but the smile had disappeared from her face. "...Hey, what's up?" She folded her arms, looking nervous and shook her head ever so slightly.

Sarah: "Just... got a bad feeling about this..."

Me: "Hey, chin up, I'll be back before you know it." I put on a smile again for her, which caused one side of her mouth to crease up ever so slightly, but only for a split second. I flicked my face plates closed and cantered out of the door, through the parking lot and spread my wings and took off as I hit the end of the ramp, Crystal adding a nav marker for me to aim for for Griffith Observatory.

Some time passed as I flew parallel with the coast, toward the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles, even at this time of night it was still pretty busy. Thankfully with it being night time and my armour being mostly black it gave me a bit of stealth. But in retrospect, it didn't take me all that long to get there even at a somewhat casual flying pace, I still made it for 21:53. I landed on the domed roof of the observatory, narrowly missing a security guard rounding up the last few stragglers to the exits... I waited out of sight a couple of minutes until I was sure everyone was gone, before asking Crystal to put their cameras on a loop. As soon as she had confirmed that she had done so I jumped down onto the roof and looked around for this Dragoness, to no avail. I wandered around the site, checking everywhere on top of and around the building, still avoiding the security with ease before heading back up to the roof. I checked the time again, 22:13,

Me: "Picking up anything Draconian?"

Crystal: "No Alex, sorry."

Sarah: "Think we've been stood up? Might be a trap." she asked in my ears,

Me: "I don't know, Crystal, let me know if you pick up anything."

Crystal: "Will do." I sighed and walked to the nearest wall and gazed upon the city. I had been there a few minutes when a voice spoke up near me.

"Hey." I froze, I glanced ever so slightly to my left, seeing this very long blonde haired girl staring directly at me. Her hair was tied back in a loose pony tail, her eyes were green, her clothes were pretty average casual wear, black skinnies ending in some red and white trainers and a plain black short sleeve top... Which surely she must be cold at this time of year. I thought it was closing time though and that everyone had been wisked to the exits. I muted the external speakers,

Me: "Crystal! What the fuck?! Why didn't you tell me someone was creeping up on me?!"

Crystal: "There was no life readings or motion detected at all Alex, I'm sorry... However, I am now picking up a faint energy signature, similar to that created by the core in your suit, originating from that woman's location."

Me: "What?"

Girl: "You want this talk or not?" I turned to her.

Me: "Who are you?"

Girl: "My name is Sora."

Me: "Why can't I detect you standing there?"

Sora: "Because, quite simply, I didn't want you to."

Me: "But how?... That's not physically possible."

Sora: "Who said it had to be physical?..." She fluttered her hand through the air, a red and purple mist followed her movement.

Me: "So you're just an image, you're not even standing there."

Sora: "Almost got it. 'Image' yes, 'standing here', yes as well." She wiped her whole arm in front of her face, the red and purple mist surrounded her for a couple of seconds as her silhouette changed shape and grew in size slightly. The mist cleared and stood in the girls place was the Dragoness from the other night and I was left stood there with my jaw dropped, good thing I didn't have my faceplates open...

Me: "How...?"

Sora: "I think it's my turn for some questions, how about telling me your name and taking your helmet off for me so we can talk civilised." I sighed, quickly turned off my external speakers,

Me: "Sarah, Crystal, know anything about her?"

Sarah: "No, never heard of her."

Crystal: "I have nothing on any files with reference to Sora or the abilities she just presented."

Me: "Keep at it, let me know if you find anything."

Sora: "Hello?" I flicked my face plates open and she pulled her head back slightly in surprise.

Me: "My name, is Alex."

Sora: "Ok, Alex, so who are you with? As I said, you're obviously not Vanguard, there's no other factions anymore beside SkyTech..."

Me: "Ok, honest answer, I was made into what I am by SkyTech, but I'm not with them, I want to get back at them for what they've done to me and to stop them from hurting anyone else."

Sora: "So where did you get the armour?"

Me: "I made it." I lied

Sora: "Oh please, that looks advanced, no offence you wouldn't be able to build that on your own."

Me: "Maybe I had a bit of help."

Sora: "Who from?"

Me: "I can't tell you."

Sora: "Well, who ever it is, they're in danger."

Me: "Is that a threat?"

Sora: "A friendly warning. If you are who you say are and your intentions are true... maybe YOU stand a chance at surviving, but anyone around you... they're gonna fall, the SkyTech will hunt them down to get to you. This is why I work alone."

Me: "So what is the Vanguard?"

Sora: "To be precise, the Vanguard is the military and police force of our planet rolled into one, the only ones that have ever ventured here besides me."

Me: "So you're from another planet?"

Sarah: "I told you they come from another world." She said in my ears, I knew she was right and had told me, but I was trying to play it dumb to keep this 'Sora' talking.

Sora: "Yes, a little planet called Draconia."

Me: "And you came here alone? Why? You said it's not safe so why come here alone, I don't get it."

Sora: "Strictly speaking I'm not supposed to be here, I'm not going to get into it so don't even bother asking, but the humans are messing with our genetics, something I can not allow."

Me: "We need to work together then."

Sora: "I don't think it's a good idea."

Me: "Oh come on, this is perfect, we both want the same thing! it will make it easier for the both of us." She huffed but stayed silent.

Crystal: "WARNING WARNING, MOTION DETECTED." I looked away from Sora so as not to confuse her.

Me: "Where from Crystal? How many?"

Crystal: "Not at your location... at the mansion... detecting 5 signatures coming in from all sides, already past the fence line and pushing in fast, radar profile suggests large enough to be Dragons."

Me: "Sarah you need to get out of there!" running back over to the edge of the roof, looking in the direction of Malibu, trying to see if the Mansion was in view, but I couldn't see it behind the hills.

Sarah: "There's no where for me to go..." She said calmly. "...Crystal, activate 'BRING IT' protocol."

Crystal: "Acknowledged."

Sarah: "Alex, you need to run. Don't trust Sora, this could be a trap, she's just a decoy to lure you away."

I looked over to Sora who looked rather confused,

Sora: "What is it?" I didn't answer, I was more worried about Sarah.

Me: "They're not after me are they, they want you, they waited until I left you unprotected, the fuckers." I heard a 'CLAK-CLAK' of a shotgun being primed down the coms followed by automatic gun fire in the distance.

Sarah: "Well, they not gonna take me, not alive anyway... I've got to go Alex, they're inside already, get away, the Mk 3 should be enough, I hope, for your sake anyway... take SkyTech down for me ok... and thank you, for the past couple of weeks." then the line cut off.

Me: "No no no no... Sarah, Sarah! Crystal get her back."

Crystal: "She's not answering coms, but she is still currently alive, although she's putting in commands to scrub my systems."

Me: "No, don't you go too."

Crystal: "From you suit I won't, I'm a copy that can run independently but my constant sync up from the mansion has just been cut off, I know longer have live updates and feeds from the house."

Sora: "Will you tell me what's going on?!" I looked back to her, my brain trying to calculate what to do, if she was part of this plan she would have tackled me or called the reinforcements on me by now surely, but Sarah needed saving one way or another.

Me: "My friend, who helped me with the armour, she's under attack right now... I'm going to help her." I said climbing up onto the wall.

Sora: "I'll help you." she said climbing up on to the wall with me.

Me: "Good luck keeping up..." I flicked my face plates shut and dived off the roof, spreading my wings into a glide. "...Fuck I swore I'd never use them..." I said to myself, but I needed the speed now more than ever. I positioned my arms and legs to be straight beside me then willed the plasma jets online, the exhaust ports on the sides of my arms and legs lit up with long white plasma trails and I took off, pretty much like a rocket. "ARGHHHHH!" I screamed at the speed, I felt my arms and legs being forced and adjusted by Crystal to keep me on a steady path...

It took me less than a minute to reach the house... which currently was ablaze, flames bursting from most windows and gradually licking at the edges of the roof. I disengaged the jets and circled the property,

Me: "Crystal, lock on to her, I need to get to her."

Crystal: "I can't get a lock, but she was last located in the garage, I looked in the direction of the the parking lot entrance, but the ground all behind it, where the parking lot was located, was sunken and jagged .

Me: "It's collapsed!"

Crystal: "Negative, the parking lot has collapsed, the garage itself is under the West wing of the property, Sarah has security systems in place including detonation charges, she probably blew the parking lot roof to deny them gaining access."

Me: "Is there another way in?!"

Crystal: "The front door?"

Me: "Less of the lip." As I altered my direction to aiming for the lobby, the door was already smashed open. I skidded into the lobby, arms raised and weapons primed, but no one was there. There wasn't a single surface inside that wasn't on fire.

Me: "SARAH!" I called out, and kept calling out as I made my way toward the west wing and the access corridor for the stairs to the garage.

I ducked as I rounded the corner in the access corridor as a clawed hand swiped at me and I instinctively swung a fist up smashing my attackers jaw and causing him to stumble backwards. The dragon snarled in annoyance and went for me again, but using the increased strength the suit gave me I used his momentum to flip him over my shoulder followed by kicking him him in the stomach as he landed. Seeing that I had caused him injury for him to be curled up in a fetal position on the floor and needing to find Sarah still, I turned and walked down the corridor towards the stairs when I heard a roar from behind. I turned back to see the same Dragon getting back up, clutching his ribs with one hand and staring me down intently. I sighed, I didn't have time for this... I raised my right arm and readied 12 gauge at him, but there was a loud creak from above and we both looked up, just as the ceiling came down on top of him with a large beam, completely crushing him

Me: "Well, that works... We need to get Sarah out of here before this whole place completely comes down around us. Are you getting anything?"

Crystal: "Still too much interference."

Me: "Perfect and typical." I headed down the last stretch of corridor which was littered with shells and a smashed auto turret hanging from the wall. I rounded down the stairs... The garage was, for the most part, free from flames, but smoke hovered in a thick layer above the ceiling. The room was trashed though, her Camaro that never seemed to move off the 2 post lift was knocked forwards, front end smashed into the floor, her desks smashed with pieces of monitors scattered around, workbenches ripped from the floor and flipped, even the stairwell was peppered with pellet holes.

Me: "Sarah!" I called again, still no reply. I noticed a shotgun on the floor near the circular platform, which was open. I leapt down over the hand rail of the stairs and made my way for the unusually vacant area, aiming my weapons down the hole.

Crystal: "MOVEMENT, 7' O'CLOCK!" But I didn't have enough time to react to the workbench being smashed into my back, knocking me down the hole. I landed on the floor beneath and the workbench narrowly missing me. The floor I had landed had tracks that presumably the lower platforms ran on, I knew that down here was where the Mk 1 ancient Draconian armour was stored and where Crystal manufactured the parts for my armour, but I had never been down here. I groaned as I pulled myself off the tracks, a set of feet landing next to me, I raised my arm up at my attacker, but didn't fire as my face dropped and eyes widened...

Me: "JINX?!..." She charged me, tackling my mid section and knocking me to the floor, "...JINX WAIT!, STOP!, IT'S ME, ALEX!..." I shouted at her, trying to fend her off as she punched and clawed at me, with little effect of course, but she wasn't listening. I managed to flip her off me, her claws screeched along the metal floor as she braced herself to charge at me, I flicked my faceplates open, "Jinx, it's me, Alex, stop it now!..." but she charged at me again, "...oh fuck this..." she lunged again, but I simply and quickly side stepped, giving a huge wallop of the my right fist to her temple and she landed on the floor in a heap. "...Stay down now for fuck sake."

Then I once again heard that familiar deep voice,

Skylen: " 'Alex'... as in 'Alex Crawford'?..." I turned to see Skylen rounding the corner down the hall, "...well... this does come as a surprise, I thought you were dead, sent off to be dissected. It's a shame you couldn't behave and do as you're told, you could have been beside me, here on my team, instead of your friend there." He gestured to Jinx's unconscious body to my side.

Me: "What have you done to her?, she doesn't remember me."

Skylen: "Memory block reset... but narrowed it down to anything involving anything to do with you and your team in the training facility."

Me: "You mean 'Prison'."

Skylen: "What ever you want to call it..."

Me: "Where's Sarah?, What have you done with her?!"

Skylen: "Dead, or dying somewhere, disposed of, maybe, I don't know, I don't much care either, she's not my cause for concern anymore, I'm now here for something far more important. I'm a little busy Alex, I'm sure you could probably guess until you and your friend caused a ruckus and distracted me. So if you wouldn't mind leaving me in peace." He turned to go back down the hall he came from.

Me: "Oi, Skylen! Where is she?!" He growled in annoyance, looking over his shoulder, A12, B02 and another dragon stepped out from the hall beside Skylen.

Skylen: "Kill her." he said with a growl and immediately all three charged at me.

I snapped my faceplates closed and brought my arms up spraying in front of me with the 9mm rounds, but they were quick, mostly avoiding my rounds and although a few rounds landed, they had little to no affect. I switched to the 12 gauge as B02 rounded on my right, leaping off the wall at me, I fired, but too late as he made contact with me, batting my arm to the side as it fired, knocking me to the floor, the third unknown Dragon went to slide past me, slicing at me with his tail at the same time, but Crystal forced my head down flat to the floor so the blades barely scraped over me as he slid past. A12 then tried to make a ground pound at me with both fists as B'2 held me in in place, but I managed to throw B'2 into his swing instead while throwing myself to my feet and out of harms way.

You could see the strain appear on A12's face as he tried to stop mid swing, only lightly coming down on B'2, but still enough to make him wheeze upon winding him. The third Dragon made a swing out of no where, punching me in the face causing me to stumble back against a support pillar. He swung his tail blades at me again, I ducked and rounded the pillar, his blades scraping past the pillar and me. I grabbed his tail at the base of the diamond tip, while willing the thin hatches to open in my own tail tip armour, that we specifically designed to when I wanted to use my tail blades, firing my own blades out, ready to use. I swung my tail up before he could pull his tail back out of my grasp. Like a hot knife through butter, my blades separated his scaly flesh and bone, the shell like diamond shaped tip landed with a clang on the floor. "BLOODY HELL!!" I heard him scream in a Scottish accent, that amusingly did not go with his form. I peered around the pillar and immediately pulled back as his jaw snapped beside my shoulder.

I took the opportunity, grabbed him by the neck with my arm, putting him in a head lock, swung my tail with the blades still out, driving it up and through his throat, he gargled, spluttered and squirmed as I carried on driving the blades through. I grabbed his horns and yanked hard on his head, ripping what little flesh that was keeping it attached to the rest of his body and it fell to the floor with a thud along with his lifeless body. Blood sprayed in pulses from the neck as I stepped past, deliberately kicking his head away in frustration. I walked past the pillar, but apparently, even after seeing what had happened to their team mate, there was no effect on A12's or B02's resolve as they both came toward me at speed. I fired the 12 gauge at B'2 and he stumbled onto his face as his left arm pretty much disintegrated from the shot gun blast.

B02: "MY ARM!" He screamed cradling the remains while rolling on the floor. I fired some more 9mm rounds out of my left gauntlet at A12 just before he tackled me, they hit, but his mass just seemed to absorb the rounds and he still kept coming at me and made contact, knocking me on my back. He pinned me down and I tried to push him off, but with him being slightly bigger than me it made him just slightly out of my reach for me to be able to do anything. He brought his tail up beside him, blades extended and swung. Crystal forced my arm into a block position as he chopped down onto my gauntlet he brought it back to chop again, Crystal adjusting my arm's position for his new angle of attack and blocked again, this time starting to cut into the metal plating of my arm.

Me: "We need to get out of this Crysta!, fire the jets!..." the jets fired, sliding us along the floor slightly and only burning A12 a bit, enough to make him screech but if anything only enraged him further, he continued to chop away. "...Again!, but charge them up, full throttle from the off!!..." I heard the jets increasing their hum loudly and suddenly fire, sending me flying across the room and hard into the wall. My vision feed temporarily came through fuzzy, but soon returned to normal. I pulled myself up from the floor and scanned the room for A12... "...Holy shit..." I had melted the ceiling and surrounding walls where I was moments before... and as for A12? Well, what was left of him had been plastered down the ceiling, floor and walls beyond the glowing metal, blood dripped from the ceiling and ran down the walls to land on the floor, sizzling on the hot floor. I looked down at myself, making sure I was still intact, which surprisingly I was. Well, except for the chunks that A12 had taken out of the right gauntlet, a continual flow of sparks flowing out of it. My damage indicator on my HUD said it was only the weapons module that was damaged and inoperable so I ejected that right hand module off, landing with a clang on the floor and revealing the unscathed armour underneath. Which left me with just 23 rounds in the SMG and the 3 40mm explosive grenade rounds on the left arm. I proceeded down the hall, stepping past the remains of the 3rd dragon and A12, but no B02. Jinx as well it seems had either regained consciousness and left or had been dragged away as she wasn't where she last was either.

I rounded the corner and ventured down the corridor that Skylen went down earlier before the fight, noticing blood splatters and drips following down the hall. There were rooms down each side of this strangle blueish silver hall, the circular closed doorways spaced apart every couple of dozen feet, but in the room on the very end, where the blood trail was also leading is what had my attention. Bright red and purple light flooded out, obscuring my vision as to what was actually in the room. I heard Skylen yell an almost triumphant yet slightly painful roar.

Skylen: "FINALLY! I WILL AVENGE YOU MY SWEET, I WILL FINISH WHAT WE STARTED!!!... AND NO ONE WILL STOP ME!..... NOT EVEN YOU, ALEX!" I still couldn't see into the room because the light was so bright, even my polarising vision couldn't compensate. But I didn't have a chance to get any closer as a shockwave erupted from the room, smacking my body hard, sending me flying, spinning through the air, landing and screeching down the hall floor. My vision flickered on and off, the HUD fuzzy and unreadable, my suit wasn't responding, I could feel I was fighting the servos.

Me: "*Groan*, Crystal, give me something, I need a little help."

Crystal: "That energgggyyy pulse has cor-cor-cor-corupted my systems-ms-ms. Atttttttempting reeboooot."

Me: "Come on Crystal I need you!" I said, trying to pull myself from the floor.

Crystal: "Working-ing-ing, one moment t t t -*STATIC SCREECH*- WARNING WARNING, MOTION DETECT-ECT-ECT-ED." I was roughly smacked to the floor from above, back down to the floor. Now the suit was off, I could really feel the difference with the gel layer being off now. There was a several taps on top of my helmet and I tried my best to look out of the eye slits of my helmet to see Skylen crouched in front of me.

Skylen: "Are you still with me in there? You had your opportunity Alex, several in fact, to either help me or stay out of my way..." My vision feed came back on, but my HUD was still a garbled mess, clearly Crystal was still trying to restore the systems, at least I could see what was going on now though. "...But now that I have this..." Skylen presented a jagged look gem in the palm of his hand, it glowed red and purple, just the same as my plasma cores and Sora's portal! "...I will be unstoppable, batches of 60-70 dragons at the time Alex? Pah! Laughable! I'm talking 1000s at a time... possibly more... too bad you won't be alive to see it..." I looked past him to see Jinx walking towards us, with B02 limping, "...This place shall become your tomb." He growled And with that he flicked his hand out beside him, a red and purple cloudy portal appeared, same as the one that Sora jumped through a week ago! He leant down down, touched the floor with the jewel and cracks glowing purple and red rapidly spread out around the room, the metal work creaking and straining around us.

Skylen: "Let's go!" He beckoned to the other two and stepped through the portal, B02, hobbled on through, cradling his stump of his left arm, Jinx was about to step through,

Me: "Jinx... Please don't do this." She stopped, looked at me, shook her head, almost looking confused then proceeded and through the portal anyway and it closed behind her.

Me: "Crystal... How are we doing?" 

Crystal: "A-A-A-Alex... This is your 0-0-0-0-0-08:00 wake up call call call."

Me: "...Crystal..." I groaned solemnly, I was worried she was corrupted beyond salvage, but I had to get us out of here, the house was burning down above us and this underground section sounded like it was going to collapse any second. I stood up, fighting the servos, turned around and started heading for the exit. But I was too slow and too late, with an almighty crash the ceiling gave away and came crashing down on me, everything turning dark instantly.

(-AC DC)