Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard

__________*_Sarah_*__________

Malibu, Sat 8th Jan '22 11:21

My eyes slowly opened, but I didn't dare open them too far, the day light creeping past the half arsed closed curtains was not helping my hang over recovery. I rolled away from the light toward my bed side drawers, opened the drawer and grabbed the packet of paracetamol and the bottle of water off the top, popped 2 pills, then downed the whole bottle. I laid there for a few minutes, vaguely remembering me sharing Alex's bed then waking up and her telling me that I had humped her leg... no, I can't have done that... it had only been... what?... 8 months? wow... ok, so yeah, it had been a while since I had any action in bed... I groaned in embarrassment, stuffing my face into my pillow. I've had close friends and partners tell me I do get really flirtatious and horny when drunk, but I didn't think I would have been that bad. Not that there's anything wrong with Alex, actually I thought she had grown to accept her situation surprisingly well. But I certainly didn't want to embarrass myself like that. After a while, I finally found the enthusiasm to pull myself from the bed, treating myself to a very long cold shower.

___________

13:09

Sarah: "Crystal, where's Alex?" I asked, checking in the mirror above my dresser that there was enough hair spray in my fringe to hold it's shape over my forehead, nearly covering my left eye.

Crystal: "She's in the garage ma'am."

Sarah: "Really?, what's she doing?"

Crystal: "I believe phrase she used was 'chilling'."

Sarah: "Helpful as usual Crystal, what is she actually doing?"

Crystal: "Currently, she's listening to music ma'am." I stopped at the threshold of my bedroom door,

Sarah: " 'She's'... you just said 'she's'... you used a contraction."

Crystal: "Yes ma'am, since having access to Alex's mind yesterday I believe I have a better understanding of humanity's use of the English language."

Sarah: "How... intriguing..." I had thought about the side effects of what could potentially happen to Alex if I allowed Crystal access to her mind, which is why I put many levels of restrictions in to stop Crystal potentially causing any harm. But I never really thought about what effect it would have on Crystal. I made a mental note just to monitor the situation, providing Alex was fine, I could see no harm with Crystal having a better understanding of humanity I suppose. I made my way for the garage, hearing music thumping before I even reached the stair case, recognising the song currently playing, 'Monster' by Paramore.

Rounding down the stair case slowly and quietly, I could clearly hear Alex singing along with the track... I had to say, I was very impressed...

Alex: " #...I'll stop the whole world, I'll stop the whole world from turning into a monster and eating us alive. Don't you ever wonder how we survive? Well now that you're gone, the world is ours...#" I could see her sat at my desk, looking somewhat like an oversized cat, awkwardly sitting in my chair, bobbing along to the music while singing, I had to say, it was a very odd sight, seeing a Dragon, sat at a computer, singing and bobbing her head along to a human rock band...

__________*_Alex_*_________

Me: "#...Well now that you're gone, the world is ours...#" 

Sarah: "You have a beautiful voice." I gasped due to Sarah making me jump, quickly stopping the music on her workstation and leapt out of her chair, stepping backwards from her,

Me: "Sorry."

Sarah: "What are you saying sorry for? It's good that you're in high spirits after yesterday..." She smiled back at me before continuing to walk down the stairs. "...seriously, your voice is beautiful, I wish I could sing that well."

Me: "You really think so?"

Sarah: "I wouldn't say so otherwise... very apt lyrics as well don't you think? Given the situation?"

Me: "Yeah... I suppose so... I didn't really think of it that way. I was never able to sing that song as a guy, I have to admit, quite enjoyed singing it now... Just another tick of the boxes for likes on the Dragon body I guess. How are you feeling now anyway? You were hanging pretty bad earlier."

Sarah: "Well, I'm glad you're accepting it, I imagine most guys would still be wallowing in their own self pity. And yeah, better now, thank you. I'm sorry, about that... 'incident' this morning."

Me: "Hey, don't worry about it, I've forgotten it. But if you don't mind me asking, what drove you to drink like that last night?" I could see she was hesitating to answer, but then eventually gave in.

Sarah: "Fear, worry... relief..."

Me: "They didn't follow, don't worry, I checked, you're a good getaway driver it seems." I said with a smile, but Sarah shook her head.

Sarah: "Not them, you. We almost lost you."

Me: "I thought you said if shit hit the fan I was on my own, I was surprised you came back for me at all to be honest."

Sarah: "God... I don't want to sound too sappy... *Sigh* I realised I couldn't just leave you, I feel too guilty about what's happened to you and everyone else as it is. To give up on you... I don't know, if I had lost you, I wouldn't have forgiven myself...." I smiled back and was about to speak but she cut me off. "...Anyway... enough of that... How are the cuts? And the wing?"

Me: "Both a bit sore, your make shift splint seems to be holding well."

Sarah: "Good good, with your Dragon abilities, you should heal quite quickly, that wing should be fine within a week. Have you literally just been sitting down here singing to yourself all morning?"

Me: "No, look..." I pointed over to the platform, "... I tidied up after last night. And take a look at the Mark 3, Crystal has designed a masterpiece." She looked over to the platform and noted the orange hologram on the platform... It's wings spread wide and face plates on the helmet still open. Sarah started walking towards it so I followed.

Crystal: "Actually, Alex had most of the input, I merely gave her the technical advice, conducted virtual testing and altered her ideas accordingly so that will work within the confines of the suit and practicality." Sarah stepped up to the platform and started analytically looking at the design.

Me: "I hope you don't mind, I thought that while you were sleeping... I'd make myself useful... sorry if I over stepped my bounds." I apologised cautiously, it was hard to get a read on her.

Sarah: "No it's fine, this is quite something actually... But, do I take this redesign as a sign that you're staying?" She turned back to me.

Me: "Well... if you'll have me..." I replied nervously "...if not then, it's hopefully improved for whoever you find next." I finished looking anxiously down at my feet, just about keeping Sarah in view. She smiled before looking back at the hologram.

Sarah: "Of course you can stay..." I brought my head back up, trying not to show how happy I was to hear her say that, "... It looks... slimmer? I want to say."

Crystal: "Overall volume of the armour has been reduced by 3.6%."

Me: "That number doesn't do it justice, we've shaved some unnecessary bits down but added more to other areas, so as a result the weight currently remains the same."

Sarah: "You've redone the helmet I see."

Me: "Yeah, what do you think? Think it will work?"

Sarah: "Yeah really good, it should do, but what have you done about vision?"

Me: "Optics and sensors, live feed, straight to my... Err... Crystal?"

Crustal: "Occipital lobe."

Me: "Thank you, yeah, that bit, just as the SkyTech sent messages, we've worked it so that the suit can relay what it sees to me."

Sarah: "Clever... I also see armour on the boned areas on your wings... are you leaving the membranes exposed?"

Me: "I was going to, but Crystal had an idea and ran some virtual tests, using a specific combination of chemicles and a few of our own elements and a small amount of... Fuck, Crystal did tell me the name.. Xi... no, Xai..."

Crystal: "Xanthium."

Me: "Thank you, again, Xanthium, that element that you said was given to you, we can make a preformed gel like film, that wil stretch and contract, but yet, shoot it with a gun and it will solidify and disperse the impact."

Crystal: "The disadvantage to using this matieral is that, although yes, it has bullet proof properties, it can only take a small quantity of hits from small arms fire unlike the rest of the armour."

Me: "To which I said isn't the end of the world... I'm not planning on being shot at that much."

Sarah: "My, you two have been busy eh."

Me: "There's one other big thing we've done, I control the armour right? Well, we've eliminated the need to bolt it all together onto me. As soon as I slot the back piece on, into the interface, I'll be able to tell it to latch to the next piece, then do the same to the follow piece that connects to that."

Sarah: "Very clever indeed. Right... Anything else?..." I shook my head "...ok, if you don't mind, I don't want to ruin your baby, but I have a few more ideas and modifications I'd like to it add, if thats ok?"

Me: "By all means."

Sarah: "Thank you... there's a lot to do and I don't want to rush this one, I'm sure you'll agree..." I nodded approvingly, "...And properly test it this time as well, not throwing you in the deep end."

Me: "A good test would be meeting the Dragoness from last night in a weeks time."

Sarah: "Oh yes... I forgot about your your date." She winked at me mockingly.

Me: "Really?" I replied completely unamused.

__________

Malibu, Mon 10th Jan '22 14:50

I swam up to the surface of the pool gasping for air, holding onto the edge. I made sure to take a few deep breathes before diving back under and kicking away from the wall and belting down the Olympic sized pool while submerged, launching myself off the opposite end and returning, only coming up for air once I had made it back to the to my starting point. I smiled as I bobbed at the edge, apparently my aerodynamic shape and wings make me incredibly fast under water too.

Crystal: "Alex, miss Jarvie is requesting your presence in the garage." Crystal's voice announced from pool side speakers.

Me: "Ok, I'm on my way." I pulled myself from the water, shaking myself dry and proceeded indoors in a canter.

Me: "You called for me?" I asked Sarah as I rounded down the stair case into the garage.

Sarah: "What?... Oh yeah, come here I want to show you something." She replied without looking at me, darting from one side of the metal workbench, seemingly distracted. I noticed one of the plasma cores sitting active, pulsating red and purple... it reminded me of something...

Me: "Sarah... these plasma cores..."

Sarah: "What about them?"

Me: "Why do they have the same pulsing colours as that Dragoness's portal?..." Sarah froze with her back to me for a good few seconds. "...Sarah?..."

Sarah: "I'll explain later, I need to show you this... so here we have..."

Me: "Sarah... What are you not telling me?, If it's important or related then I need to know." She spun around on the spot to look at me and sighed, dropping her head.

Sarah: "I can't tell you Alex, not yet... no one knows except me, not even Crystal, if anyone knew, it could put humanity in danger... but I promise you, when the time is right, I will tell you." I sighed and shook my head, conceding defeat that I wasn't going to easily get the answer out of her for this.

Me: "Alright, fine... Come on then... what have you got to show me?" She turned back to the workbench, gesturing me something the looked like miniature jet engine with wires and coupled pipes protruding off every side.

Sarah: "This, quite simply, I'm gonna call it a plasma jet... Now the core..." she moved my attention to the core on the desk which most of the wires and pipes went to, "...It has a series of modes which include: full on, where it produces as much energy as possible, if it's producing too much plasma, or 'energy', it will oscillate between switching off coils in stages or going completely to standby mode. Now, I can tell you, even with the suit, or rather, the Mk 2 as you're calling it, you never had it at full on, it never had that requirement to need to be. Now, what is Plasma? do you know?"

Me: "It's super heated air, basically."

Sarah: "Pretty much, yep! The 4th state of matter, not just air, but we'll stick with that for simplicity. Now, you have an abundance of it being created in this core yes? What could we use it for? How about..." She stepped back and gestured back to the 'Plasma Jet' "...Thrust?"

My eyes widened slightly at the realisation of where she was going with this,

Me: "Sarah, I'm not so sure this is a good idea."

Sarah: "Relax... look, I've only had this on idle so far, which is something like 0.4% of it's total potential output. I haven't fired this up yet but I wanted you here for the first run, ok, let's move back a bit..." I moved back plenty, more than she was suggesting. She grabbed what looked like a trigger handle with a dial on it. "...Ok here we go, firing in 3..." the machine started humming and increased audibly as she counted down, "...2...1...FIRING!" She squeezed the trigger, the jet roared into life with a blinding white foot long plasma trail behind the outlet. It only stayed still for all of about 2 seconds before the workbench broke free from it's floor mounts and flew spiraling, rolling end over end, across the room with the jet still attached and smashing into the back of the Shelby Cobra on the opposite side of the room, destroying the car in the process, the jet sputtering and died out. Sarah looked down at her trigger device and gave it a thoughtful "Hmmm..."

Me: "Jesus!... yeah maybe I wouldn't have tested that so high for the first time!" Sarah turned to me, showing the dial on the trigger,

Sarah: "Hmm, yeah, maybe 5% was too much for the first go..."

Me: "5% ?! That was 5 bloody percent?! and you want to strap one of those to me?!" She looked back over to the wreckage before calmly replying,

Sarah: "No..."

Me: "Oh... good, you had me worried-"

Sarah: "...I was thinking about four of them."

Me: "FOUR?! Are you taking the piss?!"

__________

I stuck around a bit a helped her clear up, mostly to try and talk Sarah out of her idea but she acted a bit numb on replying on that subject. I suppose with it being her money, technically her suit, she can do what she wants. I wouldn't have to use them anyway, with the wing armour design we made, I'll be able to use them properly now. After cleaning up and rolling the destroyed cobra out into the parking lot, Sarah said she had a few other bits she'd been working on that she'd like to show me that 'hopefully I'd like a bit more'. She took me over to a workbench which had a small selection of guns on it, starting with 2 sub machine guns.

Sarah: "You wanted guns, I didn't think they would be necessary, but after the other night, I can see that they would probably help make quick work of anyone who came at you. MP5, 9mm submachine gun, short to medium range, should dispel well against light infantry..." she moved down the bench to the next weapon. "...500 Mills, 12 Gauge shotgun, simple but effective, probably do better against Draconians. And finally the Mk19 40mm grenade launcher, ideally used for obstacles or light vehicles. All favoured by the US military forces. What do you think?"

Me: "Are you going to put some kind of holsters on the armour?"

Sarah: "Nooo, come on, please. These are going to be dismantled, incorporated into your armour, into your gauntlets, it will make them quite bulky and will mean that you'll have to stand up more often to use them more easily, but there's not really any other way I can do easily."

Me: "Ok, fair enough... well, thank you for this... I feel like I'm going to need them."

Sarah: "I've got a couple of more bits to show and tell you, if you want to hear them out?"

Me: "Yes, please."

Sarah: "Ok... over here..." She gestured me toward the platform, "...Crystal, bring up the Mk 3 hologram and give me an exploded view, just the plating removed please..." The hologram snapped into existence then all the panels pulled away from the framework below. "...I had an idea, based upon the tech yourself and Crystal came up with regarding the gel based armour for the wings... I figured that if I was to implement a layer similar to that between the top armour layer and the chassis, it will make an absorbative layer. Impacts, gun fire ect. will not be completely absorbed, but will certainly soften the blow." The hologram showed patches, similar to the sizes of armour pieces they were set under.

Me: "Clever, I like it."

Sarah: "Good, one more thing... but it's a bit more intrusive so I wanted to run it past you first."

Me: "Okay...?" I replied, kind of worried where she was going to go with this.

Sarah: "Right, I'm worried that potentially, some of the infiltrations may take more than a day or 2... Crystal already monitors your bodily functions, I mean the standard operating software in the suit will do the same too, but I could put in the ability to feed you intravenously with the correct vitamins, proteins and minerals your body needs. And from that additionally, potentially alter your chemistry to make you more stable during a fight... but I will leave that to your decision." I gave it a few moments thought before replying,

Me: "I think yes to the first bit, no to the second, if that's alright... I had SkyTech altering me once... I don't want anyone or anything else doing anything more to me again."

Sarah: "Wilco, I can respect that. I think that even just the nutrient feeds will be a great help to you. It will mean you can at least live in the armour for longer periods, should it be needed."

__________

Malibu, Thur 13th Jan '22 20:04

Sarah: "Come on already! I want to get this going!"

Me: "Oi, what did we say about rushing?" I replied walking toward the platform, Sarah using both arms in a beckoning manor, trying to entice me to move quicker.

Sarah: "Oh come on, I meant in terms of sending you on missions, it's been days since we finished designing!"

Me: "2... 2 days!, At least Crystal can manufacture the parts quickly, imagine how long it would be otherwise."

Sarah: "I know, just come on." I stepped up onto the platform and she helped me line up the back plate and it locked in place. I asked Sarah to allow me to try putting the rest of the Mk 3 armour on on my own, just to see if I could. The chest plate went on, then I moved to doing the wings... only because they were by far the most difficult to put on, with the somewhat elasticated membranes. Thankfully my wing had all but healed, it was insane how quickly my bone had mended, but Sarah had warned me to still go careful with it the next few days as it will still be weak, but also that the wing armour will help strengthen it for now. Piece by piece went on, each automatically locking onto the last as I offered them up, the helmet being the last bit to go on. I placed it on, allowing it to latch onto the the lower jaw plate, leaving the 4 piece face plates open. I willed the suit online, I felt and heard the slight resonating hum as the core came off standby and kicked in, feeling the servos relax and calibrate to me once again, the new environmental layer of the suit went cold, then hot then equaled out to my own body temperatures, then finally that warm fuzzy feeling entering the back of my mind again...

Crystal: "Hello again Alex."

Me: "Hello to you too Crystal... how's it looking?" Sarah looked around confused.

Sarah: "She didn't say anything Alex..." looking worried. I pointed to my head,

Me: "I asked that when speaking directly and only to me for her to just talk in my head."

Crystal: "Apologies miss Jarvie, I was merely testing Alex's request." She spoke on the loud speakers in the garage.

Sarah: "Ahh... well, don't be talking bad about me behind my back will you." She stated with a smile, putting on an ear piece.

I chuckled at her then made a small leap from the platform, heading for the garage door, this time Sarah walking out with me and up the ramp out of the underground parking lot.

Sarah: "Go on, give me the jets."

Me: "Erm... let me think about that..." I willed my faceplates to close and instantly they slammed shut, "...NO." and I quickly spread my wings launching from the floor as quick as I could into the night sky, leaving Sarah in a cloud of dust.

Sarah: "Yeah, thanks for that." She said sounding unamused, her voice now coming through my helmet coms unit, spitting at the end of her sentence.

Me: "He he, my bad." I replied back while circling overhead.

Sarah: "Go on, show me some moves." I granted her wish, pulling off loop the loops, barrel rolls and even pulling out of a nose dive a mere foot from the ground among some other manoeuvres.

Sarah: "How does it feel?"

Me: "Just absolutely awesome I have to say, it's so responsive, yet effortless... but it still gives me enough feed back to know what's going on. I could say it almost feels like there's nothing on me at all."

Sarah: "How about, tomorrow, we test out the targeting systems?" I flew down, beat my wings within a dozen feet of Sarah before dropping to the floor perfectly landing on my feet, folding my wings back and snapping my faceplates open,

Me: "Do you have a range then?"

Sarah: "Since I stopped making weapons, no. But we'll use the air strip, it's in the middle of nowhere, I will have some old targets kicking about somewhere. I have another request to make of you."

Me: "Go on?..."

Sarah: "Just try sleeping in the armour tonight, let me know if there's anything that needs adjusting or made better. And even if you're hungry in the morning, will be a good test."

Me: "He, yeah... alright, will do." We then headed back inside.

__________*_Skylen_*__________

I huffed disappointedly with my arms folded, looking over at Sarah Jarvie in the distance from a nearby hill, beyond the boundary line of her property, probably about 300 meters away, obscured in some shrubbery. I watched as that black and red armoured Dragon flew around doing basic parlor tricks in the air before landing next to Jarvie then the pair heading back in to the underground entrance.

A12: "I knew that armour was Jarvie Tech... no one else could make anything that advanced!"

Skylen: "Keep your voice down, you don't know what security systems they have..."

B02: "Screw the security! She's betrayed us! She will pay! We scared that Dragon off once we can do it again!" He went to run off in the direction of the property but I stopped him by grabbing his tail and yanking him back.

Skylen: "No! you imbecile... Jarvie will pay, don't fret, but we need to wait until she is alone... we don't know if that is the only Dragon she has... One alone proved to be enough to outsmart you two, so if she has more..."

B02: "It won't happen again, we'll be ready."

Skylen: "And so will they... we all take 8 hour shifts, camp it out here and keep watch, if that Dragon leaves or if you spot anymore then report it back to me. DO NOT make a move otherwise, is that clear?" I growled at the pair at the end to get my point across, they both gave a short sharp "Yes sir."

Skylen: "Good... A12... you have the first shift."

I went to retreat back to the SkyTech hideout, but took one last look at the mansion... Something about this place... Giving me a feeling... The presence of something I haven't sensed in a long time, for probably a little more than half a century now ... Surely it's not here?...

__________*_Alex_*__________

Malibu, Fri 14th Jan '22 08:00

Gentle chiming filled my head, causing me to stir,

Crystal: "Alex... this is is your 08:00 wake up call."

Me: "*Groan*... Ok... thank you Crystal, I'm up." I blinked my eyes a few times, the small amount of light that entered my helmet from the small eye pieces was just the right amount to start waking me up. I realised last night that even with my eyes shut as I tried to sleep, the suit was transmitting an image of what it saw into my head. It was like sleeping with my eyes open, which was really distracting when I was trying to relax to get to sleep so I asked Crystal to turn off the feeds until I woke up.

Crystal: "You are also starting to run out of oxygen, you will need to surface in approximately the next 15 minutes."

Me: "So what's that total time we got?"

Crystal: "Your reduced breathing while sleeping in combination of the new environment systems has given you 9 hours and 24 minutes of air since we submerged."

Me: "Impressive, no issues with the seals I presume?" My HUD and vision feeds returned,

Crystal: "None to report, Alex." I groaned again as I sat up. A splash appeared above me and I looked up. Sarah had dived into the pool above me in a swim suit and and swam down to me. She floated above the pool floor in front of me, pointed at her watch and gave me a thumbs up. I nodded back and launched myself out of the pool using my wings. landing on the pool side, sitting down and I opened my faceplates, the cool morning air a bit of a shock as it hit my face Sarah appeared after a couple seconds, breaking through the waters surface with a gasp of air, spitting some water out.

Sarah: "Impressive, what's that, a little over 9 hours?"

Me : "9 hours 24 apparently. Bit chilly out here isn't it to be swimming?" She swam to the edge of the pool, holding on to the side, water still dripping past my face from off the top of my helmet and I smiled at her.

Sarah: "You know when I said to sleep in the suit, I didn't mean you had to do it at the bottom of the pool..." she said mockingly, "...and yes it is, but in your nice climate controlled suit, you probably didn't even realise my pool was heated eh?"

Me: "I did not, no... and well yeah well I thought, why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone, test the air range as well as being able to sleep in the armour in unnatural environments."

Sarah: "Oh don't get me wrong, was definitely a good idea. So how was it? Sleeping in it that is?"

Me: "Do you know what, it didn't even feel like I was wearing it... Or that I was even sat at the bottom of a swimming pool all night."

Sarah: "Good to hear, you hungry?"

Me: "I... No... Actually I don't. That's impressive."

Sarah: "Told you so. Well, I don't have that luxury, so I'm gonna take a few laps then have some breakfast myself, then we'll head for the airstrip yeah?"

Me: "Sounds like a plan." I smiled at her again as I stood up and made way for the house.

Sarah: "Alex!..." She called after me so I stopped to turn back to her. "... Can you give it 5 minutes to dry off before you go in? You're dripping wet and I don't want you ruining my floor." She winked again and smiled before launching off the wall into a backstroke.

(-Paramore)