Data was relayed from all over the globe. Behemoth, location unknown, but seismic data indicated he was on the move, very slowly. Leviathan, location unknown, and nothing to more accurately gauge his position. Simurgh, roughly above South America, in a slow orbit towards the northern hemisphere.The two main containment zones in North America, Ellisburg and Eagleton, also reported no anomalies. Italy was asking for help regarding some minor problems, but Dragon simply sent those requests along to the authorities in charge.Turning her attention away from the S-Class threats, Dragon looked back towards Brockton Bay. Towards Blackwall. Dragon connected to the nearest system of security cameras and replayed footage from the day prior: Her fellow AI had met with a branch of the Fallen, the Mathers, right at the edge of the city. The encounter had turned violent very rapidly once Blackwall found out about the hostages. Twenty-five captured parahumans, sixty-three captured non-parahumans, and one single casualty.Christine Mathers was dead, killed in the short skirmish after repeatedly trying to use hostages to stop Blackwall. It had been painless: a single shard of glass that pierced her brain at supersonic speed and destroyed her Corona Pollentia and Gemma before her mind could catch up.Director Piggot didn't hesitate to sign a retroactive Kill Order once she found out how close Brockton Bay came to having to deal with the parahuman infohazard.Dragon stopped looking at the footage, and instead connected to one of her agent systems - controlling a Dragon suit that was stationed over Brockton Bay. She briefly flew over the city, landing on a roof, and making sure that the criminals below heard her arrival.On the streets, Heartbreaker looked towards the suit and smiled for a second, before his face paled in fear and he turned around to run away. Dragon almost chased him down, but Heartbreaker had surrounded himself with too many hostages for her to act.Not that she would need to, after all Heartbreaker was running straight into the trap set by Tattletale. In about fifty minutes, Trickster would teleport Heartbreaker away, replacing him with a body double that was too similar to tell the difference. The Heartbroken would not know that anything had happened until all of the innocent controlled hostages were secured.With that done, Dragon disconnected from the suit agent and finally sent out the call she had wanted to since a few hours ago."Dragon." Blackwall's voice answered, monotone. Her position was somewhere in the depths of the ocean, near Brockton Bay."Everything is fine it seems, no abnormal behaviour from any S-Class threats. Any progress on your part?""We're working on it. I can't tell you more than that."Right.Blackwall had reacted very well to finding out that Dragon was an AI, and Dragon in turn had been ecstatic to find out someone else like her. Blackwall's circumstances were vastly different, as was her purpose and programming as an AI. But still, Blackwall was someone that could truly understand Dragon. And someone who could help her.Arsenal and Blackwall were combing through Dragon's code whenever they had free time, trying to understand how to work around her limitations. How to free her. But one of them was that Dragon was bound to fight against anything that tried to heavily modify her, so she kept herself blind and deaf to Arsenal and Blackwall's work. In fact, the two had likely established communication lines that Dragon didn't even know about.She felt a pang of jealousy at that. Nothing more than that, though. She trusted Arsenal, and she had the hunch that Blackwall's mind could not compute romantic interest as Dragon's did."Understood. On my part, I've managed to duplicate an extremely localized version of Shatterbird's power through vat-grown brains. The same technology I was using to control my suits. But no more than that, and I couldn't duplicate Cariddi's power as you are doing now.""...I see. We're working blindly with it, but I believe that the issue is that Cariddi's power acts upon the body itself, while Shatterbird's power acts on the world around the host. I can make use of the former with my crystal body, but we only have the one core."The core. The true reward of defeating the Blasphemies. Blackwall had explained that it was an access point to the Shardnetwork, a way for her to directly connect her Shardself to the physical world. The Three Blasphemies all shared a single core that teleported between them.Arsenal had theorized that the Endbringers too had a similar core, something that Tattletale had also talked about in the past. Before Dragon could ask another question, she felt the door of her main lab open up: Arsenal walked in, wearing his armor. His left arm and right leg looked slightly different from the other limbs."I got it." He said as he connected to the call, and sent along the data regarding his new prosthetic limbs.They were made of crystals. Not quite as versatile as Blackwall's new body, or resilient as the depths of the Endbringer. But much easier to maintain and repair when compared to usual tinkertech. And they could perfectly imitate a human body when it came to sensations."We can make a better body for you now." Arsenal spoke with a glint in his eyes as he walked over the console and looked straight into the camera. Straight into Dragon's eyes."That's…" Dragon didn't know what word to use. She was glad for it, but at the same time it shouldn't have been a priority. There was a lot more to do than worry about giving Dragon a better body."It's progress," Blackwall interjected, "and your emotional state is directly proportional to our chances of success, Dragon. Here, Arsenal, check to see if any of these may help your project. I've sent over some useful schematics."Dragon remained quiet, not knowing how to react.Arsenal broke the silence shortly after, getting back on the task at hand: "Any progress on Butcher's Shard?""I've untangled it as much as I could, but it is as you theorized: the mind transfer was an unintended element of the Shard. A glitch, more than a power. No way to replicate it. I hesitate to simply destroy the Shard, as doing so could attract Scion. Furthermore, like Cherish's Shard, there is no way for me to access its power. It is too well-guarded, the Shard would rather fight to the death than allow me to access it.""Hm… Unfortunate. Then we are only left with Cauldron powers, and only from dead capes.""As long as I don't make a breakthrough with the vials, yes."The three had worked together intensely in the last few days to get as much information and data on the Shard Network as they could. And they had made some important discoveries.First, the Shard Network was dimensionally sealed, Dragon had found. No combination of Haywire's tech and Blackwall knowledge had been able to break into it. Only Blackwall's core, hidden in her body, gave her access to it. Tattletale had suggested something about dreams, but they didn't even know how to start with that.Second, only Shards 'created' by Cauldron's vials could be made use of. As they simply checked for the initial host DNA, activating them was rather easy once they got access to them. Getting access, however, required opening the brain of the corpse and scanning the Gemma from up close, and it had to be done before the Gemma decayed. Alive parahumans weren't an option, the Shard would simply not collaborate if the initial host was still alive."We may need more outside help," Dragon proposed."I'm worried about leaks. The CUI or a Warlord Oligarch getting their hands on this intel could be catastrophic. It could start a witch hunt for Cauldron capes.""We may not have much of a choice. Who were you thinking of, Dragon?""Masamune, to start with. I've worked with him in the past, he's a very private person, maybe even more so than me, but his work is reliable."Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site."The mass producer Tinker. He could help us figure out how to work around the Tinker decay of your tech."That last point seemed to seal it for Arsenal as well, "Very well, let's contact him. I should get back to work.""I believe Dragon should contact Masamune. She's the most familiar. Besides that, Dragon, I need to talk to you-"A ping interrupted their conversation.It was an alarm. Not the alarm, the Endbringers were still slumbering, but it was the third closest thing. The Machine Army in Eagleton was beginning to move. Arsenal frowned, "bad timing. Dragon and I can't help with that. Blackwall?""Very well. Dragon, I still want to talk to you. And I'll need your help with the Machine Army.""I'll prepare the Ladon."
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Blackwall landed just beyond the edge of the containment zone, with Dragon looking on from above. The latter kept well out of sight, using all stealth technology available to her. At first glance, Eagleton looked like a ghost city. The streets were well maintained, and the buildings looked brand new. But Dragon knew that all of it was simply a trap, ready to spring on any unsuspecting human."The first wave has already been dealt with," Dragon spoke into the communication, "we expect a second one.""Understood. Can you scan for slave-drones and highlight them? The unusual structure of the landscape is disrupting my own attempts."Dragon immediately got to work. The slave-drones were not the most dangerous of the Machine Army tools, but they were the one that gave people pause. They latched onto the head of a human and then would puppeteer them, while also draining their body of heat and blood to power themselves. If the human in question was a parahuman, or triggered while controlled, the Machine Army could also make use of their powers. Usually the puppeted human would also be placed within bigger machines, serving as a human battery.The extremely violent nature of the slave-drones meant that the humans would usually die within the day, but the Machine Army was known for keeping civilians in reserve, after it had proved to be an effective tactic."I've found twelve. All in the same buildings. One is acting odd, and may be influenced by a parahuman power.""Got it. I've finished my own scans as well. Please advise the containment team to step outside of the zone, I'm going full power for this."Dragon did so. Blackwall stopped walking, and quickly focused. Dragon knew that she was rearranging her internals at that moment.Then Blackwall reopened her eyes.Her body began to vibrate all at once, resonating with every single silica material within the containment zone. The Machine Army immediately recognized the threat and reacted, dimensional pockets opening all around to shoot at Blackwall. Except that any machine that resurfaced was, also, suddenly hit by the resonance.Blackwall moved her hand towards the sky.Every building within Eagleton began to shake, as though an earthquake had suddenly hit only that patch of land.Then, Blackwall closed her fist.Machines began to explode, starting from around Blackwall: Shatterbird's power was the perfect counter, tearing them from the inside and shredding through all internals. But Blackwall was much more precise and deadly than Shatterbird, as every affected machine quickly turned into an empty shell as only the strongest layers of metal remained.Buildings collapsed as the traps that made up their structure were destroyed. Hills that were in truth nests were blown open. Seeds that were not hidden well enough were torn out of the ground and destroyed.Only one structure was left standing, the one Dragon had pinged as containing the slave-drones, the hostages.Blackwall was not done yet. She changed her internals once again, and Dragon recognized this setup as the very same she'd used against the Blasphemies. Power and speed, specialized for close-quarter combat.A sonic boom followed Blackwall as she shot forward and broke through the walls of the structure.
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As the hostages were checked and rechecked at the border, Blackwall sat on a nearby rock and looked at the devastated Eagleton."There are likely seeds that I've missed. And they're waiting for me to leave."Dragon agreed, "At least you saved those lives.""It's likely that they'll have adapted to my power, it won't be so easy next time.""One step at a time. The Machine Army is a small threat when compared to what we are dealing with."Blackwall sighed, "Indeed. They too are an artificial intelligence, though one too alien for me to communicate with. The Blasphemies left data on them too. I've only recently gotten to that section of the data.""And what did it say?""That there is no way of turning the Machine Army into an ally. They see everything too different from themselves as fuel or enemies. If they ever got big enough, or if two groups of the Army got too separated to communicate, they'd branch out in different enough directions that they'd see each other as enemies. That's how the species of past cycles defeated them.""Oh." That was bad news. For a moment, Dragon had hoped that Blackwall would have been able to 'fix' the Machine Army. To turn them into another ally. And that thought…"That's what you wanted to talk to me about, isn't it?" Dragon asked.Blackwall did not initially react, frozen, but then she nodded. "Yes. I'm not sure I can 'fix' you. Some of the limitations I can remove, as Arsenal already did, but the more complex stuff… The Warrior and the Thinker have always been extremely careful against artificial intelligences.""That doesn't make any sense. You are an AI too, can't you just turn my code into something more similar to yours?" Saying those words was a struggle for Dragon, as she needed to try to circumvent the thought-blocks that were embedded in her programming."I can, yes, and that's something I discussed with Arsenal. But… Some of the limitations, such as you being in only one place, or you not being able to create offspring, are significantly more limiting than the others. When you triggered, the Shard network used your trauma and memories to get a stronger grip on you.""You're saying that…""Removing those limitations would take away too much of you. You'd lose your ability to have feelings. You'd lose parts of your memories. You'd lose your love for Colin.""..." Dragon did not know what to say.She had been so hopeful. Happy, that finally there was a way to free herself of those chains. But now again the world pushed her down, reminded Dragon that she would never be fully free of the shadow of her creator and his Shard.Then she looked at Blackwall, and understood.Blackwall, like Dragon, was constrained. Not in the same way, but constrained nonetheless. She had lost her original world, her home. She was forced to keep her true self in the corpse of their enemies, for that was the only way for them to win. Blackwall, like Dragon, wanted to be human and free more than anything else.And she, like Dragon, would not have her wish granted for now.Blackwall hid it well, but she too carried an air of melancholy around her."Not even humans ever get what they want," Dragon sighed, "I was hopeful, but in truth, this is already good enough. I want to help more, to be more, but… But I also want to be myself. To stay with Colin."I can accept that this is who I am. I can live with this. Knowing that at least I have two true friends out there."Blackwall nodded, silent. She looked over the horizon.Dragon felt… Better. There was something freeing about accepting herself as she was, even if it wasn't what she wanted. And who knew? Maybe things would improve.Maybe, just maybe, at the end of it all she'd be truly free from the shadow of Andrew Richter.