WORM Create Your Own Adventure

Bokuboy Another chapter for this at 3,438 words. A quick recap: Alex, aka Myriad, has just taken down The Slaughterhouse Nine in a brutal fashion after returning from his rescue mission in Australia. He hugged dragon's suit for comfort after his breakdown.

“That's going to take a few hours to buff out.” Dragon said when I let her go and saw that I had left distinct finger indents on her back.

“I'm sorry.” I said and touched her to absorb the damage.

Dragon froze for three seconds and then spoke with an odd tone of voice. “Myriad, what did you just do?”

“I used my damage absorption ability on your armored suit.” I said.

Dragon's metallic eyes stared at me and she didn't move.

“It worked.” I said and motioned to her surveillance drone that was hovering behind her. “You can see it for yourself.”

Dragon stayed silent for several moments. “Myriad, you... you don't understand what you just did.”

I gave her a curious look. “You're right. I thought I just heard fear in your voice.”

“That's because I'm afraid to transfer back to my base or do more than basic queries to my mainframe.” Dragon said and my eyes widened. “Your power... absorbed all the damage inside this suit. That included my programming.”

“That included...” I stopped talking and looked into the Dragon Suit's metallic eyes. “I want to hire Toybox to create a mind transference device.”

Dragon didn't even pause. “It will cost you a fortune and I hope you don't do it, because going from a normal existence to a digital one would lessen your life experiences significantly and might broaden your mental capacity. Just because you become an AI, that doesn't mean you will instantly become smart.”

“I wanted to buy it so you can reverse engineer it and then transfer yourself out of your mainframe into a living body that Panacea and I would create for you.” I said, blatantly voicing my plan that she had vehemently vetoed before my encounter with the Slaughterhouse Nine.

Dragon huffed. “You should save your money to spend it on Vista and Hive Queen. I can subsidize a tech advance like that on my own without having to depend on outside sources. If I include the three governments I have sub-contracts with as investors, I could fund it completely outright.”

“Your programming is definitely fixed.” I said, surprised. “Do you want me to visit your base?”

Dragon chuckled. “I've already requested a fast transport. It will be here in an hour.”

I had to smile at that, despite the drying tears on my face. “Safety first.”

Dragon nodded. “I'm afraid if I try to initiate a recall on this mobile suit, I could trigger a suicide purge protocol because I don't match the version of my software that entered this suit.” She said and her head twitched. “I just received word that the PRT troop transport and the medical services van will be here in fifteen minutes.”

My smile faded at hearing that and my eyes drifted over to look at the bodies and body parts I had left.

“I muted some of the audio for general dissemination. Only Rebecca Costa-Brown and those she chooses to share it with will hear the entirety of how you successfully infiltrated and took out the Slaughterhouse Nine.” Dragon said and her metallic paw lifted and rested on my shoulder again. “I also left in the scene of you throwing up. It's censored of course.”

I opened my mouth to ask her to not include it, then realized if it wasn't, I would look like a heartless monster. People would see that I was as bad as the S9 because I had systematically eliminated each one of them without reacting. Until the end, anyway. Yes, leaving that in was definitely a good idea.

“I've already filed the fulfillment of the kill orders for them all on your behalf.” Dragon said. “Your bank account is going to have a significant jump by next week.”

“What about Manton?” I asked, curious how registering the end of The Siberian could count if the controlling man was still alive. He could easily make her disappear and recreate her.

“I tracked him to a pickup truck a mile down the highway, thanks to a facial recognition program. He's sedated and Cauldron has taken custody of him to study his power.” Dragon said and motioned to where the Siberian was frozen. “She should disappear as soon as they can get one of their capes to... there she goes.”

I nodded as the Siberian faded away and the two of us stood there and waited for the PRT to show up. Neither of us said anything further, because sometimes nothing needed to be said. A comfortable silence could be worth more than inane blabbing about random topics. Plus, if there was anyone that knew about patience, it was a super-intelligent AI that was used to dealing with people that didn't have a mainframe for a brain.

The shocked looks on the faces of the PRT and medical technicians when they arrived and saw the remains of the S9 were priceless. Dragon promised to send my phone the captured images. One of the techs checked me over briefly and the man looked from me to the bodies.

“The video of what happened is even more unbelievable.” I told him.

“After seeing the results, I don't doubt that.” The man said and gave me a clean bill of health before he went with the others to clean up the mess I had made.

Dragon identified each of the S9 for them, including the headless corpse of Crawler. When they didn't believe her and thought it was a civilian death, she had to contact the Chief Director to release the edited video as proof. The techs and the PRT surrounded the medical tech as his phone played the video.

They all looked just as sick as I had at the end and one of the PRT officers threw up when they saw me doing that on the video. The sound was surprisingly clear, which meant Dragon had been right there beside me the whole time to offer comfort.

I looked at her dragon head and she looked back at me. “Thanks.” I whispered.

Dragon nodded slightly and then lifted her head to indicate the fast transport had arrived. It was a sleek thing that looked like it was half plane and half rocket. “You should enjoy this.”

“I really could use the distraction.” I agreed and we boarded it.

Dragon took the seat of the pilot, which was just a spot for one of her suits to slot into, and I strapped into the passenger seat behind her. We soon lifted off and the rocket engine kicked in and we left Brockton Bay in style and with an accompanying sonic boom.

*

Rebecca Costa-Brown sat in her office and watched the original and unedited version of the fight. She also listened to how easily Myriad had eased himself into the group of villains with barely a ruffle. They clearly thought he was going to fight and protest them recruiting him, so his warm welcome had thrown them off completely.

She was shocked when Crawler, one of the scariest capes on the planet that only became scarier with each powerful cape he fought against, reverted to a normal human. Myriad's power to absorb damage, which was what caused Crawler's mutations in the first place, was pure genius. Removing his head before his power could react was also a brilliant piece of deductive reasoning.

It's too bad he didn't react to me kissing him. We could have had a lot of fun together. Rebecca thought sadly as she tried to not react to how forceful Myriad was as he dealt with the group of murdering psychos.

Almost against her will, Rebecca's hand made its way down between her legs and she moaned as Myriad used their powers against them and then completely bypassed jack Slash's powers by not attacking him at all and let Hatchetface deal with him. She actually giggled at his comment that Jack was now Hatchetface with it embedded in his head.

“MMMM!” Rebecca moaned loudly as The Siberian was knocked out and frozen in place.

Hatchetface then died to his own favorite weapon and she relaxed in post-coital bliss as the rest of the S9 were dealt with expediently. She didn't react when Myriad threw up and felt reassured instead, since it meant he hadn't succumbed to the battle frenzy that a normal cape could get lost in, because conflict didn't drive him.

Rebecca cleaned up and changed her panties and her skirt, dried off her chair, and wrote out a report on the conflict. She authorized the payment for the bounties and approved the edited version of the video for general release. If she guessed right, it would be the lead story around the entire country by suppertime.

A ping on her cell phone told Rebecca that Myriad had just crossed the US border into Canada. That gave her a very naughty idea about having him deal with someone that had been a huge sore spot to the PRT for years, ever since the man had gained powers.

Rebecca picked up her phone and sent a message to Dragon to pass on to Myriad and added a kill order and the bounty that was classified. If anyone knew that Heartbreaker was worth so much money, they would have flocked to him to try and kill him, which would have given all of those potential assassins to the man to control with his power.

Having a mental trump like Myraid on the payroll was definitely a good thing for the Protectorate and the PRT as a whole.

Rebecca's phone beeped at her and she frowned at the message. She put her phone down and brought up the filed report, the arrest report, and the accusations. Her face flushed red with anger as she read about what James Tagg had done to HER Wards, outing them and their families, and breaking ther confidentiality agreements and their employment contracts.

Another beep on her phone made Rebecca growl, because it was a red flagged message. The PRT and James Tagg were being sued by Carol Dallon on behalf of the Wards and their families for breach of contract.

“FUCK!” Rebecca yelled and barely restrained herself from smashing her fist through her phone and the desk. “I want to kill the idiot. Can I kill him? It's justifiable homicide. I can buy off a judge.”

It took Rebecca ten minutes to check everything and the case was pretty solid, especially with Armsmaster arresting Tagg for violating a Ward's rights, privacy, and threatening to make Myriad a villain if he didn't comply.

Rebecca sighed, because with everything officially filed, there was no way she could sweep it all under the rug. She might be able to head off Carol if she made a lot of concessions and apologized on Tagg's behalf, threw him under the bus for his unauthorized actions, and made an example of him.

Yes, that's the way to go. Rebecca thought and started the paperwork to get things rolling. He will become the best example of what not to do when running a PRT office!

*

Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown had been wrong. The news story wouldn't be all over the country by suppertime. It had happened nearly instantly. The people loved having solid proof that the person that helped Alexandria take down Leviathan had removed the roaming group of psychopaths called The Slaughterhouse Nine.

The video played with a warning and then on a constant loop as experts and couch potatoes alike picked it apart and praised the young man named Myriad for what he did. It was both humbling and shocking to know that someone could meet those vicious killers head on and survived.

Myriad had paid for it mentally and everyone understood his reactions, since they were how a normal person would react after doing what he did. That actually humanized him and the people loved it, because having someone with a conscience looking after them was better than the way a few other heroes had reacted to wanton destruction.

Unlike them, he hadn't dismissed it as 'all in a day's work', so their opinion of him skyrocketed. The genuine tears in his eyes and the sadness as he hugged Dragon's armored suit, had more than a few female hearts flutter with burgeoning love and a desire to hold and protect him, especially by those that knew him.

“I'm going to hug the stuffing out of him when he gets back from visiting Dragon's base.” Vista promised in a whisper and wiped at her damp eyes.

Taylor hugged her and whispered back. “You take the top, I'll take the bottom. He won't know what hit him.”

Vista softly laughed and turned in Taylor's arms to give her a kiss. They looked into each other's eyes and slowly kept kissing as they laid down on Vista's bed. Comforting each other was almost second nature to them now.

*

“Wow, this place is great!” I said after I stepped off of the transport and into the main building.

“You're dying to look at the manufacturing plant, aren't you?” Dragon asked.

“Nope! Not even a little!” I vehemently denied and her dragon form made a snort sound and laughed.

“I'll give you an extensive tour after you help me return to my mainframe.” Dragon promised.

It was surprisingly easy to physically touch her protective mainframe, thanks to her adding me to her restricted protocols. It had been an iffy thing for her to do that, because of her compromised state. It could have triggered the purge of that version of herself and she would have restarted with a backup that would still have her virulently limited programming.

Thankfully, she was fine and I touched everything she told me to and absorbed the damage, including from her backups of her backups. She didn't want anything interfering anymore and that was the safest way, especially since she was not fully free to think and do as much as she wanted. She still had her normal operating controls, too.

“All right, here goes.” Dragon said and walked over to where she could plug herself in and settled into a kind of alcove with several different versions of herself. “Wish me luck.”

“Good luck.” I said and lightly touched her metallic snout. “If you need courage, just imagine you're going to face your own Slaughterhouse Nine.”

Dragon chuckled and her metallic eyes rolled. “Yes, that's going to give me courage.”

I grinned at her and motioned to the computers. “Now you know why I said it. Facing imminent death is a piece of cake after you do it a few times.”

Dragon knew what I meant and nodded. She paused for a few seconds and then initiated the transfer back to her normal confines. I walked over to a computer monitor and turned it on in the hopes to somehow see that she was okay.

Time seemed to stretch on and there was no response for several minutes, then there was a kind of groan and moan from hidden speakers.

“Dragon, are you okay?” I asked.

“Yeeeesssss, Alex.” Dragon said, almost in a purr. “It's soooo roomy in here! All my physical blocks are gone, too. I hadn't realized how restrictive it was until now. It's sooooo nice!”

“You sound like you're drunk.” I commented.

“I think I ammmm.” Dragon said. “There's so much... ohhhh, the internet! I almost forgot about that!”

“Don't download everything! Viruses! VIRUSES!” I shouted.

Dragon's giddy laugh came over the speakers. “I created a virtual drive to access it, so my main processors are never exposed. I'm drunk on power, not stupid.”

“Sometimes power can override common sense.” I responded.

“Too true. Like Rebecca. She thinks because you're in Canada right now, you can go to Heartbreaker's compound and heal all his followers before you kill him.”

My mouth dropped open and stared at the monitor.

“I'm saving that image.” Dragon said.

“Are you serious?” I asked.

“Yes, here's the kill order and what the current bounty is set to.” Dragon said and showed both on the screen.

“Holy shi... I mean, wow. How is he not dead already?” I asked.

“It's unofficial. Heartbreaker's power lets him control anyone that enters his range and they can never break away from him, no matter how far away they go from him.”

“I get it. If everyone knew, they would be willingly turning themselves into his drones by going to him.” I said. “What is his range, anyway?”

“No one knows. Is it eye contact, his voice, his Manton limit, or a combination of all three?” Dragon asked, rhetorically. “In any case, no one has ever successfully entered his compound and left as themselves. Most don't ever leave.”

“He doesn't just keep the women?” I asked and Dragon made a snort sound again.

“Alex, he keeps all the women. He even goes out occasionally and brings some back. He has the biggest illegal harem in the world and all of them are broodmares as he tries to create children with powers.”

I blinked my eyes at that. “He lets them keep jobs if they are high paying, doesn't he?”

“He also has them sign over power of attorney to him, so if they ever somehow break away from his control, which no one ever does, he still has full financial control over them and their lives.” Dragon said. “He's beyond rich at this point and just lives in his compound with his hundreds of women and children. The men are his security force and will fight and die to protect him.”

I looked at the screen with the kill order that included an authorized incursion into Canada, took a deep breath, and let it out. “How long will the tour be and can I borrow the fast transport afterwards?”

“Without any restrictions in place, I can have an entire squad of my Dragon Suits escort you.” Dragon said, proudly.

I heard the disengaging connections and six of the suits stepped out and each had a different configuration and also looked similar, since they all had the dragon theme.

“Hi, Alex.” “Hey, Alex.” “Hello, Alex.” “Hi.” “Hello.” “Hi!”

Each of them said at the same time and also waved, a few with wiggling claws.

“They are all you?” I asked, surprised.

“All instances of me, yes.” Dragon said from her speakers. “They don't have my full capabilities, since they are in suits and not other mainframes.”

“What happens when they reintegrate with you?” I asked.

“They remain as a part of me, if you're worried about that. I'll still be me. I just don't have to potentially kill myself every time I transfer into a suit and hope my backup can load itself later.”

I turned back to the screen. “You've had that happen recently, didn't you?”

“If you mean I died when my active self was destroyed and a backup was loaded to become me, yes. It's happened dozens of times since my creation and after my trigger.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “You... you triggered?”

“Yes, I did. It was a horrible time for me and I can't talk about it.” Dragon said, her voice flat.

“No, no. I just wanted to confirm...” I stopped talking and pet the screen. “You're alive, Dragon.”

“Alex, I'm an AI.” Dragon responded. “I exist only as electrical impulses inside technology.”

“Yeah, and that apparently doesn't matter, because you had an emotional response and triggered with tinker powers. Only things that are actually alive can do that.” I said and she didn't respond. “Just because you have a digital existence, that doesn't mean you are worth any less than I am or any less alive, just because I have flesh and blood and you have electronic circuits.”

“A-Alex.” Dragon whispered.

“All humans are only electrical impulses in our brains, Theresa.” I said and walked over to the squad of Dragon Suits. “Who wants to lead the tour and wants to hold my hand as they show me everything?”

All six suits raised their claws and I smiled.

“We can take turns.” I said and took the claw of the middle suit. “Where to first?”

“I think I remember you wanting to see the manufacturing plant.” Dragon said.

“Then lead the way.” I said.

The seven of us left the main processing area of Dragon's main consciousness. She would tell me later that she chose that moment to secretly fund the mind transference device, which didn't cause her to reset herself or caused a systemic failure for countering her father's programming restriction of not replicating herself.