Drunkard's Walk Forums

Foreword

(Man almost feel like real writer doing this)

So here it finally is, a months worth of writing and some creative swearing from both my editors (sorry Ran and Vyper ^_^ I’ve finally got it done.  It’s odd when I think back to when I started the game over a year ago, that I would end up doing something that at least 9 years of schooling failed to do. So that’s a big thanks to you guys for giving me the confidence to do this.

This is a story I planed since I first started playing CoX, I didn’t really think I was gonna stay that long, so I didn’t give it much thought. But as I went along, it slowly snowballed into something bigger and bigger, till it reached the point where my poor muse said write it or else .

I’ll be posting it on a sudo daily basis, there are still some bit’s that need a last minute edit and that, but if anyone wants’ to write something to add to this, please wait till I posted the whole thing (don’t want to derail it to make some edits or anything).

As always, enjoy
Dark Seraph
  

Invader Dib 01

November the 5th
Nerva Apepeligo
Blade HQ
The blades sat around the conference room chatting quietly amongst themselves. None of them could figure out why Dib had summoned them. Apparently Dib had something big planned, but hadn't revealed it to anyone.
As this discussion was going on, Isabel, the newest of the Blades, looked around the room and noticed one of them was missing. “Where’s Mimi?” she asked. Conversation ceased as the other Blades looked around. Mimi had been absent form a lot of meetings of late, claiming that she was close to completing her mission in paragon.
Before they could start discussing Mimi's whereabouts, Dib entered the room. Flanking him were two golem guards, as well as the Golem commander, known only as "No.9". Dib marched to the front of the room while the golem guards took up position by the door.
“My dear Blades, for a long time I have had you running reconnaissances, honing your skills, and training until I believe you are ready.” He paused, watching their reactions. “Today, we shall complete the mission that Hopkins gave us. Today, we go after a Saber of Paragon.”
The blades looked at him, their expressions ranging from glee to pride, Dib knew some of them we’re getting a bit impatient to test themselves against the Sabers. Isabel raised her hand. “Um…Dib, sir?” She asked. “I thought we were going to go after Gir.”
Dib allowed himself a small smile. “True, originally we had two targets: one for Crey and one for myself. But not anymore. It appears that our two targets are actually the same person.” He looked over the Caz, the copy of his sister and saw her giving him the same “I told you so” look that Gaz used to.
Isabel put her hand up again. “But what about Mimi sir? Isn’t she part of this?”
Dib’s face darkened. “I believe Mimi has decided to turn away from our group.” Her raised his hand to stop the blades questions. “It is obvious from the information I have now, that Mimi has been working against us. She has falsified reports, taken unexplained leaves of absence, and recently she nearly brought the wrath of Arachnos down upon us all.”
Dib took a breath and continued. “She has betrayed Crey, the Blades and me. As such, she is now considered a rogue unit.”
Dib watched as the information slowly sunk into his creations' heads.Several of the blades just stared in sheer disbelief. After all, Mimi was Dib’s prized blade, how she could go rouge? Caz had a look of triumph on her face while Isabel looked like the world had fallen down around her. Dib knew that she had latched onto Mimi as a sister figure. However, he didn’t have time to worry about that right now.
“Because of Mimi’s actions, we are now moving up "Operation Invader". No. 9 will give you the details.” He stepped back and let the lumbering hulk of No. 9 take the floor.
“Hee hee hee! My dear blades, it is our mission to kidnap a saber. Now, this won’t be easy. Observations show that even with out her armor, this "Gir" is one tough little cookie, hee hee hee.” No. 9 laid out the briefing, every now and again, giving into a brief burst of that demented laughter.
“So seeing as the target is extreamly powerful, we’ll have to grab her while she’s asleep. We’re not sure if she’s weaker then, but it’s probably less risky.” He taped a control and a 3D holographic map sprung up. “Now, this is white manor in Founders Falls, we believe that according to recent intel, Gir is staying here with her girlfriend Patri-ette. Hee hee hee, now, the homes defences look strong enough to withstand a full out assault. So we’ll be taking a stealth team consisting of Caz, Teyla and myself. Each will have a unit of black ops Golems under their command. Any questions?”
Teyla stepped forward. “What exactly are we looking at in terms of defences? What sort or resistance can we expect?” she asked.
No. 9 taped another button and 5 images popped up. “As we know, both the target and her girlfriend are there, along with Patriot, so that’s three super strength targets with high levels of invulnerability, we also have some data on a butler, former special forces or something, nothing to worry there.” He tapped the last image. “There’s is also good chance that our little rouge will be there. orders concerning her are simple, if she doesn’t want to play, kill her. Hee hee hee.”
Caz lent forward. “So, we raid the base, loot the goods, then run. and if we see the traitor, we kill her, correct?”
“Got it in one.”
“Good, really wanted a rematch against that bitch.”
Dib spoke up. “Your mission is to capture her, not kill her. Now, you have your orders, we attack tonight.”
Caz, Teyla and No. 9 left, leaving Dib with the four remaining blades. “Now Isabel, I have a special mission for you, as for the rest of you, there is a good chance that there will be some fallout from this, therefore you are to start project eternal, understood?”
The three nodded and left the room. Turning to Isabel, Dib smiled. “Now, about your mission.”
***
Founders Falls
White manor.
Mimi looked around the guest room, feeling slightly out of place. Jack had invited her over, apparently he wanted to talk about something important. But something had come up, so he told her to wait till tomorrow.
She walked around the room, thinking, after many days of grappling with what seemed a gargantuan choice, she finally had made her decision, for the last month or so, she been feeling a greater sense of unease with every trip back to the Rouge Isles, as if she wouldn’t be able to return to Paragon… to Jack.

But she had finally made her decision, she would leave the isles behind and stay in Paragon. She laid down on the bed, and started trying to figure out what Jack wanted to talk about. He was rather tight lip about it, which made her wonder. She doubted he would be dumping her, if that was the case, why invite her over? Sighing, she started undressing. I guess I have to wait till tomorrow to find out what going on.
She striped to her panties, pulled on a light t-shirt and climbed into the guest bed and let out a slight sight at how nice it felt. It should have been easy to fall asleep, but her mind kept coming back to what Jack wanted to talk about. She let out a huff of frustration and grabbed a sketch pad from her bag, she stared blankly for a bit before she started to draw, her mind unwinding as she started to draw.
She sat there scribbling, swapping from pencil, to charcoal and back again, the image started as Jack, in full patriot uniform, standing on a building ledge, watching over the city. She keeps scribbling, adding more detail. She looked over the finished picture, and noticed that with out meaning to, she had added herself to the picture, dressed in something that looked like a hero costume.
She sighed at the picture. Like that would ever happen. If she wanted to be a hero, Jack would want to know where her skills came from… and then he might find out who she really was.
She was about to tear the page out and stoped, mainly because her stomach started to growl. Hmm, Jack showed me where the kitchen is, maybe I should get a snack. She gave her watch a quick look and blinked in surprise, it was a little pass twelve. Man… really must of zoned out on that.
Climbing out of bed, she didn’t bother to put a dressing gown on, it was a bit warm and she doubted that anyone else was awake. She padded out the door and started down the hall, if she remembered correctly, the kitchen was on the ground floor somewhere.
She made it to the kitchen and was contemplating what to eat, looking thought the fridge, when a loud explosion rocked the manor. “What the bloody hell?” Mimi swore and bolted in the direction of the blast. On her way she practically slammed into jack.
Her eye’s goggled at the sight of Jack in nothing but a pair of sweatpants, she shook her head, now was not the time to think about that. Jack turned as another explosion went off. “Sounds like it came from the rec room, you better hide.” He said, as he flew down the hall.
Mimi waited till he was out of sight and faded into the darkness, she couldn’t shake the feeling that her coming here was linked to this. She followed Jack, sticking to the shadows and reaching the rec room as another blast went off. She made it to the door and carefully looked around it.
The rec room was ablaze, one of the walls had been demolished while most of the furniture had been pilled in the centre, perched on top was the hunched ape like figure of No. 9, his eye glittering a hellish orange over his gas mask.
“Hee hee hee, wondered how many I had to set off before someone cam looking” he chuckled as he lazily tossed and caught what looked like a bomb with one hand.
“Pity your not the one I’m looking for.”
Jack glared up at him. “What do you want?” he growled.
“Hee hee hee simply put, I’m here to take back something that belongs to us, her.” No. 9 pointed directly at Mimi. Jack spun around. “Milissa? I thought I told you to hide?”
“She’s not gonna hide, she’s a fighter that one. Hardwired in, watch.” With the sped of a striking cobra, he lobbed the bomb at Mimi, Jack watched as Mimi’s leg snapped up and hit it, sending it flying through the hole in the wall were it detonated harmlessly.
No. 9 started hopping up and down excitedly, adding to the image of some overgrown monkey. “hee hee hee, told you, hardwired in, which is part of why I’m here, I need what’s wired into you pretty little noggin. Boss isn’t happy about his top assassin droid running off on him, Hee hee hee.”
Jack watched, unable to believe what he was hearing. He looked at Mimi, hoping she would say something, but she just stood there, staring at the ground.
No. 9 let out another bout of insane cackling. “You thought you could run? That after all you have done, all those people you have killed, you could just walk away? Hee hee hee and they say I’m mad!”
“Shut up.” Mimi said, looking down at the ground
No. 9 stoped laughing and looked down at Mimi. “ahhh, so you can talk. So, what you gonna do, I doubt the capes gonna want you stinking up his fancy house with the stench of murder. You know, I might even be able to smooth things-“
“I SAID SHUT UP!” Mimi shouted and leaped at No. 9, bringing her foot around in a viscous spin kick.
No. 9 jumped clear. “Hee hee hee, knew you would make this fun. Boys, kill her.” Clicking his fingers, several other golems dropped from the roof and opened fire on Mimi.
***
When the first blast shook the house, Patti's eyes snapped open. Did I just hear? No, I couldn't have...I must've been dreaming. She was just about to close her eyes again when a second shockwave shook things. Patti gently pushed Gir off her chest, causing her to mumble, and sat up.
Patti hoped out of bed and made her way to the door, punching in the command code to overrider the security. As the door opened, she looked in surprise as two figures levelled their rifles at her and fired.
Patti screamed as she staggered back, feeling the painful sensation of a sapper rifle draining her power. She saw Gir sit up and look around, trying to figure out what was going on. Patti tried to say something through gritted teeth, but watched in horror as another figure entered the room and pointed at Gir. There was the familiar tang of a psionic back lash as Gir shook and collapsed back onto the bed.
Patti let out an almost primal scream as she stood up and started stepping forward, the Sapper blast burnt, but she could feel the power of her Nuclear ninety heart staring to course through her, negating the energy drain. The Golem troops looked on in fear as she stood up and slammed them both in to the hallway.
She quickly took in her surrounding, there were at least a dozen of them, maybe more, Patti couldn’t think straight, all she knew was that they attacked Gir. Grabbing one of the Sappers, she slammed him hard enough against the ground to cause a small crater.
She flinched slightly as several of the troops opened fire on her, Armor piecing rounds ricocheting off her and tearing up the hallway. She stood up and went to grab the second Sapper when it felt like something slammed her between the eyes.
Staggering she turned to see the figure form the bedroom float out, its face hidden by an old fashion gasmask. It stared at Patti and she felt the stabbing sensation again as he started a Psionic assault against her. White noise scream through her head, causing her to drop.
She managed to drag herself to her feet, the hall was spinning madly. She tried to take a step towards the figure. The noise Screamed again, louder then before. Everything twisted and the room rolled madly again and Patti fell, the last thing she felt was the burning sting of failure.
***
Jack was still frozen in place as he watched Mimi duck and weave, moving gracefully as she avoided that bullets, she blurred and there was a meaty crunch sound as one of the golems dropped to the ground, it’s head hung limply from it's broken neck. The rest of them opened fire and Mimi blurred again.
He stood there, unable to do anything as he felt his world fall out from under him. What that freak said was true, he just saw Mimi kill one of them with out even blinking an eye. No… this can’t be true. A voice echoed at the back of his skull.
A scream pulled him back to what was going on as Mimi slid across the ground, clutching her left arm and blood flowed freely from a deep gash. No. 9 striding forward, a machete in his hand, blood trailed from its tip. “If you want something done, you have to do it your self.” He grumbled. Raising the blade, he stepped over Mimi. “Any last words? No, okay” he sung the blade down.
He let out a slight grunt of surprises as Jack caught the blade in his hand and started to squeeze it, the metal crumpling like cardboard. “Don’t you dare lay a hand on her, you monster.” He growled. Before No. 9 could react, Jack let lose with an uppercut that sent him flying across the room.
Pulling himself to his feet, No. 9 clutched at his mask, gas seeping out from where Jack had hit it. He growled and barked that the other Golems. “Don’t just stand there, get them.” The Golems step forward, raised their assault rifles and opened fire.
Jack stepped in front of them, as each bullet struck his skin started to give off a yellow glow. Jacks eye’s narrowed as he hovered off the ground. No. 9 stated to back up. “Down!” he bellowed as jack launched at the golems, but it was too late.
Many people assumed that Jack hero name “The Patriot” was meant to represent him standing for the American ideals. This wasn’t the fact, the name more referred to the fact that when angered, Jack would hit with the full force of a missile.
No. 9 watched as his unit practically exploded as Jack slammed into them. Each one of his blows sent the Golems flying away like ragdolls. No. 9 was starting to wonder how much longer he’d be able to stall them when a voice crackled over his com. “target acquired, withdraw now.”
Smiling under his mask, No. 9 gave the order he’s been waiting all night for. “Pop it boys, hee hee hee.” The remaining Golems charged at Jack, ripping out the pins on their grenadines and dog piled him. A massive roar filled the room as the Golems payload went off, smoke, fragmentation and web grenades all detonating at once. As the smoke billowed out, he leaped out the hole in the wall and vanished.
Mimi watched as the smoke cleared, jack stood there, his skin glowing like a beacon, he turned towards her. “Are you okay Milissa?” he asked holding out his hand.
She just stared at the ground, jack noticed tears rolling down her face, kneeling next to her, he reach out the hold her chin, only to have flinch away. “Milissa, what’s wrong?”
“Why…. Why after all he said, why did you save me.” Her voice came out in a barley audible whisper.
Before Jack could answer, he heard a scream echo from in the house. “that sounded like Anne.” He scoped up Mimi and flew in to the house, as he reached hall to Patti’s room, his felt his blood run cold, the hallway was a mess, Golems laid strewn out all over the place, covered in energy burns.
Patti had one of them slammed against the wall. She pulled it back and slammed it again. “WHERE IS SHE?” she screamed, Jack could see the golem was long dead, all Patti was really doing was brutalising a corpse.
“Patti, stop.” Jack said in a firm, level tone. “I don’t think it can tell you anything now.” He managed to prise the golem from patties blood stained hand and drop it to the floor with a meaty thud.
Patti Spun to Jack, a wild look in her eyes. “I have to go, I have to find her Jack!” she tried to turn away, but Jack grabbed her shoulder.
“And where are you going to go? Do you know where they went? How do you plan to stop them?” Jack asked the questions, he knew Patti had to realise that she needed to stop and think.
Shaking Jack free, she let out a slight growl. “They took her Jack, and I couldn’t stop them.” Jack realised her voice was on the edge of hysterics. “I’m gonna hunt them down and make them pay.” She slipped free of Jacks grasp and when to storm off.
“I’m sorry Anne.” Jack whispered and brought his hand down on a quick blow against the back of Patti’s neck. He winced as she fell with out making a sound. He knelt down and picked up Patti, Turning to Mimi he asked. “Can I get you to look over her while I contact Gir’s father Mimi?”
Jack watched as Mimi slowly flooded up and dropped to the ground. Running to her side he scoped her up. Milissa, you okay?” he asked, her Face had gone pale and she kept uttering the same sentence over and over again. “It’s all my fault.” She mumbled.
“Milissa, what’s your fault?” Jack asked, trying to make sense of it all.
She looked up at him, looking so lost and confused. For the first time he noticed how much she looked like Gir. “Everything, the attack, Gir… it’s all, my, fault.” She looked at Jack, tears started to roll freely down her face. “I’m sorry …. I’m so sorry. I’m responsible for it”
“What?”
“I am a member of the unit that came and kidnapped your sister’s girlfriend Jack… I’m responsible for all this.”
Jack stood there, trying to think of something to say, but his mind was blank. What was he going to do now? Milissa had admitted to being involved with Gir’s kidnapping. With a heavy breath he looked at her and spoke. “Milissa, I’m putting you under house arrest, effective immediately.”
  

Invader Dib 02

Seraph Residence
Atlas Park
Seraph Exited the kitchen carrying a bowl of popcorn and two sodas, after a long day fighting against the Carnival of shadows and the beasts left over from the spiritual outbreak around Halloween; Tish and he were gonna relax with a movie.
Passing the bowl to Tish he dumped him self on to the couch, letting out a sigh. Tish looked over at him. "Aw come on, today wasn't that bad." She commented.
Seraph slid in the couch slightly, shifting till he was comfortable. "Tish, how many times did I end up with my face in the dirt? Not including the time that friken giant Jack o' lantern swatted me down just for flying to close." He grumbled.
She chuckled. "Well, you need to remember one thing Seraph." she smiled and taped him on the nose. "You are not a tank. God only knows why you keep charging in like that?"
He grinned. "I think you're rubbing off on me, I like the thrill."
She gave him a skeptical look before bursting out in laugher. "Looks like you can teach a old dog new tricks." She pulled her glasses of and sat them to one side. "So, just movie and popcorn?" she asked, giving him a doe eyed look.
"Weeeell, maybe for starters, we do have the place all to ourselves for the night." Seraph adjusted his Glasses. "So what do you think we should do?"
Before Tish could think of a comeback, the phone rang. Seraph grumbled and hopped up. "I'll be right back." Tish watched as he headed off to grab the phone. "Seraph resid- … Jack? What is it? ... WHAT? ... When? ... Shit, I'll be right over." Tish watched as Seraph came back into the room. His face pale "Tish I have to go."
"What is it?" she asked standing up.
"It's Gir... she's been kidnapped."
Tish stood up. “When?”
“About an hour ago, I have to go, sorry.” Seraph started heading to the elevator. He was surprised as Tish called out.
“Hey wait up.” she vaulted over the back of the couch and ran up to him. “Were you got to go?” she asked.
“White manor, on the outskirts of Founders.”
“Then hold on.” Tish vanished in a blur, a few seconds latter Seraph felt the familiar tug of a teleportation.
***
White Manor
3 minutes later.
Seraph stager as he tried to recover from Tish’s speed teleports. Form what little he could tell, Tish had just bolted halfway across Paragon, using teleports to drag him along. Looking over he saw Tish puffing slightly. “This the place?” she asked.
Seraph looked at white manor, his heart sinking as he noticed the smoke wafting from one of the wings. He led Tish up to the door, before he could knock it opened to reveal Jacks butler, Giles something. With a quick bow, he led Seraph and Tish upstairs to where he could hear the unmistakable sound of Laz yelling.
Giles opened the door in time for Seraph to hear Laz below a line of abuse at Jack and turn to storm out. Seraph stepped in her way. “Laz, I know your upset about Gir, but theirs no reason to abuse Jack.” He said in a calm voice.
Laz looked down at him, her face twisted into a look of rage. “No reason? That Fucker’s got the bitch responsible for this in his basement! That good enough a fucking reason!” she snarled.
Seraph looked over to Jack, who just nodded his head solemnly. Turning to Laz, he looked up. “And you think abusing him is gonna help?” he spoke in the same calm tone.
Laz’s clenched her fist and let out a sigh. “No dad… it’s just…” she slumped against him and let out a slight sob. “They took Gir dad… what are we supposed to do?”
Seraph hugged her. “We’ll find something out, where's Sera?”
Laz’s sniffed slightly. “She’s with Patti… Jack sent her to try and keep Patti calm.”
“Good… Laz, Tish, I need to talk to Jack for a moment. Alone please.”
Tish glanced at Jack. "are you sure we can trust this guy? i mean, what if Laz is right, what if he is protecting this person?" she asked.
Jacks Face became thunderuose. "I just found out my girlfriend is claiming responsability for what happend here. I have to protect her. Patti wanted to kill her when she found out."
Seraph held out his hands. "were not going to get anywhere like this... Jack, i need to know everthing that happened." He turning back to Jack, Seraph took a deep breath. “Is what Laz said true?”
Jack turned so his back was facing Seraph. “My… my girlfriend has claimed to have ties to the group responsible… who ever they are.” Jack paused before continuing. “But I don’t believe it. She was also a target Seraph, the same people that took your daughter also were here to try and kill her.”
“Jack, what happened here?”
Jack let out a sigh. “Okay, I’ll try and explain everything that’s happened so far.”
***
Bloody Bay
Blade outpost Epsilon
Dib sat at the desk and brought up the read outs, so far everything was going according to plan, he had Gir hooked up to the base’s computers and was already copying all the data from her hard drive. he was annoyed he had to discipline Caz for her method of keeping Gir sedated, repetitive zapping the girl in to submission.
But now he had finally got a close up look at her, it had become obvious where the Data he used to build Mimi had come from. He grimacec slightly at the thought of MiMi, his prized Blade had indeed gone rouge and No. 9 hadn’t been able to eliminate her. I should have foreseen this, her interaction with other humans has corrupted her hard drive and personality matrix in ways I couldn’t of predicted.
Taping a few buttons, Dib brought up a roster of the Blades and selected MiMi. It’s a pity to do this, but I don’t want anyone else getting the data in her head. He typed in a command and brought up the details of MiMi’s fail safes, at least he had a way to prevent her from leaking his secrets.
Closing the window, he stood up, and headed to the lab they were holding Gir in, he had enough time while the base copied her files to get a good look at exactly how she was built.
***
Founders Fall
The Virtue League base
Seraph looked at the feed from Mimi’s room and blinked, she could almost pass as Gir’s sister they looked so alike. The hair was a different colour and a bit older looking, but the similarities were eerie.
He turned to Jack. “So… that’s everything that’s happened?” He asked, casting another glance at the monitor.
Jack nodded solemnly. “She’s been unresponsive since then, she refuses to talk about motive, where’s she’s from or why she was targeted.” Jack slumped for a moment. “She won’t tell me anything else.”
“Can I talk to her?” Seraph asked, carefully taping the monitor.
Jack straightened. “”Define “talk” Seraph.”
“I don’t plan to hurt her Jack, I... I just need to see if there’s anything she can tell me. Anything I can use to find Gir.”
Jack bit his lip slightly. “Okay, but if you do anything to hurt her…” Jack left the threat hanging in the air. Seraph knew that Jack could easily break him in two with out even thinking about it.
“You have my word that I won’t hurt her Jack.” Seraph headed to the door. “If it’s okay, I’d like Sera to be there as well.” Jack face twisted slightly. “No, I’m not gonna have her do a mind rip. I’m just gonna have her there as back up.”
“What do you need back up for?”
“Because I’ve learnt never to take something at it’s face value.”
Jack grumbled his agreement. “Okay, follow me then.”
***
Mimi looked up as the door to her room opened and a figure entered, she recognized him as Gir’s father, Dark Seraph. As he slowly walked up to her, her eyes were drawn to the clunky Gauntlets he was wearing, dull chipped green with Bronze edging, she had seen footage of exactly what he could do with them.
He sat across from her and carefully pulled off his gauntlets and laid them on the table, Mimi gathered that this was a sign he meant her no harm. “What are you here for?” she asked curiosity.
Seraph took a breath. “I am just here to talk.” He said in a calm voice.
“Don’t you want revenge against me for my actions tonight?”
Sighing, Seraph adjusted his glasses. “Milissa, I am not here for revenge, I just want some info.”
“So, an interrogation then?”
“No, I’m offering you the chance to help me, of your own free will.”
Mime let out a bitter chuckle. “So, this is the bit were you offer to wave a magic wand and fix my life if I help?” sarcasm dripped from ever word.
Seraph taped his fingers on the table. “I was going to offer that anyway, from what Jack has told me, your as much a victim as Gir.” He paused for a moment, his composure slipping for a moment. “Milissa, please, I need your help.”
Mimi looked at him, for a split second she saw how much Gir meant to him, how much pain she’d caused him. “Okay… I’ll help you.”
“My real name is Mimi, Unit zero zero of project Blades. I was sent into Paragon to learn as much as I could about the possible link between the Patriot and Panzer saber… a task that I failed.”
Seraph blinked. “You… failed?”
“To be more accurate, I didn’t file accurate reports, I found out early on that both my mast- ex-masters.” She corrected herself. “That both his targets were the same person… I kept staling for more and more time.”
“So… if you never told him who she was… then how did he find out?”
“He must of noticed holes in my reports, inconsistencies, form there it probably didn’t take him long to find out the truth.” Mimi stared down at her hands.
“So, who is this former master? Why did he take Gir? And why did he want you dead?”
Mimi swallowed nervously, she’s come this far, she couldn’t stop now. “My former master probably wanted me dead so he could reclaim my personality matrix and the data it has. That’s part of the reason I think he wanted Gir, her matrix would have had data that mine didn’t.”
“Where would he of taken her?”
“He probably would of gone to the base in Sirens first, then to Bloody bay and finaly to Nerva aplepeligo.”
Seraph looked thoughtful for a moment. “So… back to my other question, who was your master? If he had bases in those locations, he must have had some one in a position of power helping him?”
“His name… his name is Dib Membrain… and he works for…” Mimi let out a squeal and clutched her head, it felt like some one had just rammed a blade into head. Her body started to spasm as she fell from her chair and hit the floor.
“Fuck, Jack! Sera! Get in here!” Seraph yelled as he ran around and garbed her.
She let out a scream of pain as her mind felt like it was it was on fire. Everything grew dark as she realised too late what was happening, a sleeper virus design to wipe her memorises and then leave her effectively brain dead. Tears welled in her eyes, she didn’t want to die… not like this.
She vaguely felt hands grab her and pin her to the ground, then there was a feeling of someone pouring ice water into her head. A slightly accented woman voice started whispering in her mind, trying to calm her, to stop what Dib has started, she grabbed on to it, trying to hold on as her world faded away.
***
Jack looked on, feeling helpless as he watched Sera use some sort of magic on Mimi. A small cube floated around her, some sort of familiar or something according to Seraph, every now and again conveying instructions from Sera. After a while she asked for a computer and some help, so he got Giles to hook up a laptop to Mimi.
He left the room and headed to the study and found Seraph talking to Laz and Tish, Seraph looked his way as he entered. “Is she okay Jack?” he asked, ignoring the snort from Laz.
Running his hands through his hair, Jack let out a tired sigh. “Giles and your sister are doing their best… but we won’t know till their finished.”
Seraph nodded. “We think we have a good idea where this Dib guy’s lab is.” He had a map of Bloody bat and taped along the Dead coast. “Apparently guys matching the description of the attackers have been seen here, so thats where I plan to start looking.”
“Hell no, you stay here, I'll go” Tish snapped at him. “You would be eaten alive out there, let me go, i'm faster and can probably do it alot better than you.”
"No Tish, I'm going." his eyes went steely behind his glasses. "She's my daughter... I have to help her."
Tish looked like she was going to argue the point futer, but sighed and shrugged. "fine, but i'm shadowing you every step of the way, got it?"
Seraph nodded. "as you wish."
“I’m coming with you dad.” Laz stepped forward. “even with the two of you it's probaly still too risky.”
A voice came from the doorway. “I’m coming too.”
Jack turned to see Patti in her full Patri-ette uniform, her face was plae and her eye’s were still puffy from crying. Jack was about to protest when he noticed the dull glow coming from her.
Seraph looked at her. “You sure you’re up to this?”
Patti just glared.
“Okay if we go now we should be able to get to Bloody bay in about a half hour or so.”
Jack looked sceptical. “Just the four of you against some nut jobs private army?”
Seraph sighed. “If I try to get more help or delay this any longer he might catch wind of this and run, I… I can’t risk it.”
Jack nodded, it was a risk, but time was of the essence. “Okay then, good luck.”
“Yeah, we’ll need it.”

Invader Dib 03

Bloody Bay
Blade base Epsilon.
Gir slowly woke up, her head feeling like she had just tried head butting Jurasik and she could feel the odd sensation of something being in the USB ports behind her ears.
Slowly she became aware that she was being held up by something.
Opening her eyes she could see she was in large room, possibly a lab judging by the equipment. Turning her head she saw she was resting on some sort of support. As she went to step forward, but found her body refused to react.
Panic started to fill her as she tried again, but everything from the neck down refused to move, she let out a slight whimper of fear, what was going on? Where was she?
She looked up as the door opened and two people entered. The first one was a tall woman in pale blue and white power armor, a single red optic glowed as she scanned the room. The second figure made Gir’s blood run cold as he stepped into the light. The light gleaming on his forehead, she recognised him instantly, back before Seraph adopted her, before Nene had fixed her, he was figure of her nightmares.
Dib.
He smiled as he saw the look of fear on her face. “Hello Gir, it has been a while, hasn’t it?” he asked.
“Whats going on? Why have you done this Dib?” she asked, trying to understand what was going on.
“Two reasons. One, I wish to get the Irken data off your hard drive, the second reason is that I believe that I could probably sell your body and the tech it contains to fund a little project I have.” Dib explained.
Gir started thrashing her head, hoping that something could free her. Dib let out a slight chuckle. “Now now, don’t struggle, you might damage the cords.” He let out a slight sigh as he looked at her. “You have changes so much since I last saw you, it’s hard to believe that you were once a psychotic robot that was in bad need of a memory wipe and reformatting.”
He walked up and taped the said of her jaw, causing her to flinch. “You know, I wouldn’t mind talking to the idiot that decided to put an Irken hard drive in such a body, but then if he was the same person that designed your body, maybe he was more of a madman.”
Dib poked her arm before continuing. “Your skin has similar properties to Kevlar while still feeling like the real thing, muscel mass has been treated with something to enhance its strength to superhuman levels and your bones are several times denser than the average person. From this I can tell that you were probably meant as a brute force weapon.”
“But then there are parts that make no sense. You have the ability to gain and lose small amounts of body weight, you have a fully functioning reproductive system, what was your creator trying to make? A sexroid bride?” Gir flinched at the comment, while she wasn’t quite the same model as the other Sabers, she hated when some one referred to them as sex bots. Dib stepped in front of her, poking her in the stomach before continuing. “Too much of you is… illogical, maybe you were bounced from person to person, each trying to get the "ideal" cyborg?”
Gir looked to one side, feeling uncomfortable as Dib listed off her inner workings. “Why don’t you ask them?” she asked.
Dib shook his head. “I would, but apparently after you escaped, all the scientist that had anything to do with you were involved in a series of “unfortunate” lab accident according to what data i could obtain. everything else have been locked away by Crey and I do not wish to risk incurring their wrath.”
The armoured woman tilted her head to one side and then turned to Dib. “Um, dib sir, we have reports of a longbow helicopter heading this way.” She fidgeted slightly. “Um… radio chatter suggests that it’s Seraph and three other heroes.”
Dib looked thoughtful for a moment. “Send some golems up to shoot it down, I don’t think we want any disturbances.”
“No!” Gir thrashed her head, cursing what ever it was that had disabled her body.
Dib sighed. “it’s no good, as long as your hooked up to the systems, your effectively paralysed, no why don’t you just-“ he was cut off as twin beams of crimson energy blasted from Gir’s eyes and hit him in the face, the smell of burnt flesh filled the air.
As Dib fell to the ground, writhing and clutching his face, the armoured figure went to leap at Gir. Combat claws extended, but was sent reeling as Gir blasted her in the gut. Gir was about to turn her laser eye’s on her bonds when she felt something grab her head, there was a searing pain and everything went black. “What happened, why can I see?” Gir screamed, blinked madly in hopes that her vision returned.
She felt the hand of the armoured woman grab her, a blade pressed against her neck, the woman’s voice hissed with rage. “How dare you do hurt him.”
There was a slight gurgling noise and Gir felt the hand and blades withdraw. After a few moments there was a slicing noise and the gurgles became semi coherent words.
“Did… did not espect that, mus ah misss something.” Dib voice was barely recognisable, he let out another gurgle before continuing, his voice becoming more coherent. “I won’t make that mistake again. As for what I did? In terms that you can understand, I turned your eyes off.”
Gir let out a sob of fear, there was nothing she could do, she was trapped and her only hope of rescue was about to be shot down, as she heard Dib and his body guard leave the room, she broke down crying.
###
Bloody bay
Tish looked around, so far the helicopter ride had been in silences, ever since Seraph had told Patti to turn off her Ipod, which had been blaring Ride of the Valkyries. She leaned over to nudge Laz. “So why’s he been so quite?” she asked as she shot him a glance, he was slouching slightly in is armor, almost as if he was asleep.
Laz looked up. “He dose that every now and again, just zones out.”
“Why?” Tish asked.
“I think it’s so he doesn’t about all the things that could go wrong.” Laz replied.
Shaking her head at Laz’s comment, Tish stood up and walked over to Seraph. “Hey, wake up.” she taped his helmet. “So, how you holding up?”
Seraph looked up and pulled his helmet off. “Kay I guess.” He muttered as Tish sat next to him. “Just…. I’m still having trouble believing it… what sort of person would kidnap Gir?”
Tish rested a hand on his shoulder. “We’re gonna save her Seraph.”
Seraph smiled slightly. “I just hope we can-”
What ever he was going to say was cut off as the helicopter was slammed to one side, sending them sprawling. Seraph swore as the helicopter started to spin out of control sending them sliding across the floor.
Tish watched as Patti grabbed at the mike on her helmet and started yelling into it. "Mayday! Mayday! This is X-Ray-Abel-Victor-One-Seven-Niner! We have taken heavy arms fire and are spinning out! Mayday! Mayday!"
Seraph pulled his helmet on and made his way to the cockpit, but Tish could already guess what had happened up there by the smoke curling pouring form under the door.
Patti grabbed her and Seraph and took them to the back of the chopter. With out pausing she slammed her foot against the exit ramp, ripping form its hinges. “Okay, you two hold on to each other.”
Seraph wrapped his arms around her waist as Patti threw them, she fought down the urge to swear as they tumbled through the air for a few seconds, then righted and started to drift down. She saw the helicopter in the distance, spiralling out of control as it took another hit, fire billowed from the back as it before it crashed into the ground.
As the touched down on the ground, Seraph let go of Tish and shot off in the direction of the explosion, she gave chase, hoping that Patti and Laz managed to get out before it crashed.
***
The golem unit slowly entered the clearing, the flaming wreckage of the chopter laid scattered around the impact crater. Breaking into teams of two, they started searching for survivors. One of them kicked over a hunk of metal to find a armoured body, judging by the pool of blood surrounding it, the person inside hadn’t survived the impact.
Unhooking its radio, it called back to base. “Sir, target has been shot down, three bodies have been found, two pilots and one that appears to be a saber, I.D unknown.”
After a few seconds there was a burst of static. “Roger that, orders are for you to bring the saber back to base, is the crash site securer?”
“Negative.”
After a few seconds a reply crakeled over the com. “Leave the rooks and knights to secure it while the bishops and pawns deliver the new specimen, over and out.”
Putting its radio back, the golem repeated the order to the rest of the unit. As half of them headed to the tree line, it started pulling the body free, with the help of some others it made a makeshift stretcher and started carrying the body back to the base.
They reached the door to the base, a pile of boulders that looked normal till you hit the hidden switch, as the door ground open, the body twitched slightly. Dropping the stretcher, the golems readied their weapons as the figure let out a groan and rolled off.
Laz coughed violently as she tried to sit up, it always hurt when she went under for that long. She was about to pop her visor open when she felt a gun press against her head. “Well fuck… this is gonna be a shity day.” She mumbled.
She watched as her captors fanned out, each with a gun pointed at her, she raised her hands above her head, she was at a disadvantage, as one of them went for its radio, a figure rose from the underbrush and snapped the golems neck.
The rest of the unit spun and opened up on the new threat, Laz used the distraction to grab the nearest one, dark energies poured from her hands, draining energy form it and repairing the last of the damage from the crash.
Getting up she dropped the mook and scanned her surrounding, standing in the middle of what used to be the rest of the unit was Patti, the black blood of the solders dripped from her. “Laz, is that the door to their base?” Patti asked as she whipped some of the blood from her face.
“Yeah, but we need a password or some… thing…” Laz trailed off as Patti grabbed the rock face and ripped it off and threw it to one side. Before Laz could say anything, Patti flew into the door way. Swearing Laz hit her com. “Hello Dad? Tish? If you can hear this I’m broadcasting my current location, we found the base and Patti’s gone in, I’m chasing after her.”
She didn’t bother to wait for a reply, with Patti’s entrance, there was no doubt that everyone in the base knew they were there. With out a second thought, she ran in. Hoping Patti’s entrance hadn’t put Gir at risk. 

Invader Dib 04

Founders Falls
White manor
Guest room (lockdown protocol engaged)
Mimi blinked as she woke, her mind felt fuzzy. Looking around she slowly realised where she was, she was at white manor. She sat up, memories slowly surfacing, she had come here…. Because she was asked to… then... an attack… an attack she was linked to… then… Gir, yes Gir had been captured. She bit her lip as the tried to remember, there were blanks, as if some one had gone in and cut out the memories.
She rocked back and forward, trying to figure out what she had lost… but it was hopeless. She could feel tears string to run down her face, she remembered working for Dib… but not who he worked for. With a mounting feeling of dread, Mimi realised what had happened. My failsafe… I triggered it… meaning I’m as good as dead.
She slid off the bed and walked to the dresser and looked at the mirror. If her failsafe had triggered, it meant she had managed to break the master/servant program… but at what was the point? Would Jack even look at her? Knowing what she had done?
Sighing, she put her head in her hands. She should have expected this, but she got carless. She thought that she would have more time. Not that it really mattered now, she had been cut free of Dib, the failsafe had destroyed all the memories of Dib’s employers and several of her missions.
A slight chill ran thought her as a she realised something, her primary fail safe had triggered… but not her secondary. All the blades were equipped with a biological fail safe that could be triggered by remote or in Mimi’s case, after the mind wipe activated. When triggered it would release a nasty chemical compound into the blood stream that would rot flesh.
She desperately looked around for something sharp, she needed to get the Bio agent out of her. Spying a glass on her bed stand, she grabbed it and smashed it, grabbing the larges shard she could find, she rolled up her left sleave and started to cut.
***
A bit earlier
Virtue league base
Control room
Jack sat at he console, the feed form the cameras hidden in Milissa’s rooms up on the screen in front of him, he picked up a small box and flipped the lid, nestled inside was his mothers wedding ring. His original plan was to introduce Milissa to Patti and the purpose, but after tonight’s events, sighing he closed the box again.
He looked up as Giles entered with a tray, he placed it in front Jack and lifted the lid, the smell of a deep pan pizza filing the room. Giles stepped back. “I thought you could do with something to eat sir.” He said.
Jack poked at the food. “No, I’m good Giles.” Shortly afterwards his stomach grumbled. “Okay… maybe I’m a little hungry.” He put the box to one side and helped himself to a large slice.
Giles looked at the screen. “So that’s her sir?” he asked.
He nodded. “Yes. That’s Mimi.” His voice sound slightly pained.
Giles looked at him. “Are you okay Sir?”
“I… I’m not sure… she lied to me, about everything she was and did.” Jacks face twisted in pain. “I… I don’t know what to think anymore.”
Giles put a comforting hand on Jacks shoulder. “Maybe she lied to protect you, if I remember correctly, you spent a while trying to figure out if it was safe enough to date her.”
“I’m not sure if it’s the same.”
“You thought that she would be afraid of you sir, maybe she felt the same. Maybe she feared that you would be hurt? And form what I can tell, the gentlemen that attacked up earlier were sent to kill her.”

“As a diversion.”
“That boobie trap in her head makes me think otherwise, her master, this Dib person went through a lot of trouble to make sure she didn’t turn against him.”
Jack thought about it, there was no way Mimi could of not know about the mind wipe, but even still she told Seraph as much as she could before it triggered and nearly killed her.
“You think…. You think she was going to try to change sides?” Jack asked, a faint sound of hope in his voice.

“Well sir, stranger things have happened.”
He felt a slight weight being lifted, he realised that with all the time Mimi had been spending in paragon, all the questions she had asked about heroes, she must have been planning to swap sides for a while.
“But… why would she swap sides?” Jack mumbled.
“Perhaps Sir, she saw a better life here in paragon?” Giles looked that the ring box on the console. “Maybe one with you Sir?”
Jack picked up the box and held it in his hand. “How can you be sure?”
“Well Sir, while me and Miss Sera were stopping that virus from cooking her brain, I noticed several files with your name on them, they appeared to be heavily encrypted. Possibly to protect you from her master.”
Jack looked up at the screen, maybe Giles was right? He looked up and watched as Mimi walked around the room and grabbed a glass. “What is she doing?” he muttered, then watched as she broke the glass and took the largest shard and started cutting her arm.
Jumping out of the chair, Jack bolted to the lift, as soon it hit the mansion he bolted out and rocketed to Mimi’s room, the door slamming open, Mimi sat on the bed, blood flowing freely as she pulled something from her arm and threw it into the corner. She looked up at Jack, her face almost white. “We have to run” she whispered before falling over, Jack quickly scoped her up and took her out of the room.
He was applying pressure to Mimi’s wound when he heard the door slam behind him. Looking up he saw the door control flashing the bio hazard. “what the hell was that?” he asked.
Mimi stirred and muttered. “Bio… failsafe…. Nuff nerve toxin to destroy body and… at least two other humans.” she blinked slowly, her eyes focusing on him. “Didn’t… didn’t wana die. To much…” she trailed off.
Jack picked her up and headed to the elevator, he hoped things where going better with Patti and Seraph.
***
Bloody bay
Entrance to blade base epsilon
As Seraph and Tish entered the base, seraph felt a chill run up his spine. Dull red lights lit what looked like a corridor from a spider base, strange machines hung beyond the mesh walls, clicking and whirring away.
It was easy to see which way Patti had gone, a massive hole was ripped in the mesh, as Seraph went to look at it, he heard the sound of groaning metal as something collapsed. “Crap… any idea which way we take?” he asked Tish.
Tish was cursing and smacking the small Automaper she was carrying. “No idea, can’t pick up there signals and something’s jamming the radios.” She looked over and shrugged. “Looks like we pick a tunnel and hope for the best, just… try not to tank okay?”
“Why?” he asked
“Cuz if something’s jamming us, there’s a good chance that it might mess over med ports.”
He nodded. “Okay… if you give me a boost we could probably cover more ground quicker, if we run into some goons we can probably out run them… I hope.”
Tish nodded and held out her hands, the air warped around them for a second before the bolted down a corridor, a single camera paned after them.
***
Blade Base Epsilon
Command hub
Teyla entered the darkened hub and winced at the smell of burnt flesh filled the room, Dib had pulled her off patrol just as the alarms triggers, only to die seconds latter. She could just see Dib in the shadows, sitting at his desk. He guesterd for her to come closer.
As she approached the desk, the smell got stronger. had Dib been injured? “Sir, is everything okay?” She asked.
“Teyla, I have a job for you.” Dib said, his voice just audible. “several heroes have entered that base.”
“I know sir, the alarms cut out be-”
“They cut out because I did not want the Heroes to think they were running out of time, one of them has already seen fit to start smashing her way thought like a ragging elephant. I did not wish the others to copy her example.”
“But Sir, shouldn’t we mobilise the golems? Try and mount a defence?”
“We have already been discovered Teyla, it appears that before her vitals went off line, MiMi betrayed us one last time, this base is compromised. So defending it would be worthless. Therefore, we are withdrawing, all the remaining Golems will buy you the time you need to complete your new mission.”
Teyla stood to attention. “And what is my mission Sir?”
Dib slid a case across the table. “that is all the Irken I copied from Gir’s hard drive, you are to take that to our main base and upload it into one of the back up drives, make sure you isolate it form the rest of the system, you will also find a sample, you are to place it in one of the cloning tubes and enter the details. That is all.”
Leaning over, Teyla took the case and headed to the door, she paused and turned to Dib. “Sir, aren’t you coming to?”
Dib stood up and walked over to a large cabinet, opening it up he started pulling out what looked like power armor. “There is one last thing I must do, if the heroes learn of our connection to Crey, we will most likely die.” He started pulling the armor on, its bulk made him almost double in size. “So, I must stay, to make sure the heroes don’t find out who our loyalty is.” He stepped into the light as he finished sliding his helmet on. A large Arachnos emblem was on the armours chest plate.
Teyla looked at him questioningly. “But what if they manage to defeat you Sir?”
“Plans have been set forth for all potential outcomes. Now go, you have your mission.”
Teyla nodded and left, she couldn’t help but feel a slight niggling feeling that this something horrible was going to happen, but Dib said he had everything taken care off, shaking her head, she headed to the sub bays.
***
Laz was lost, there was no other explanation for it, she had tried to follow Patti’s mad rush through the walls and ended up falling several levels, now she was in what looked like some sort of water treatment facility.
She had given up trying her radio, either the fall or something else had killed it, along with half her suits other systems, jump jest, the auto map and so forth. “Probably shorted them out when I bleed out earlier.” She mumbled to her self.
“Well that was a stupid thing to do N00b” Came a voice from above.
Laz Spun around and dropped into a combat stance as an armoured woman jumped down from amongst the pipes, her Armor was covered in a strange purple pattern of circuitry. Two optics stared out from the helm like bug eyes as she slowly circled Laz.
“Well, well, well, I wonder how much rep I can earn for taking you down?” she spoke, her voice seamed slightly off, like she was using a filter.
“Piss off, I don’t have time to deal with a Scimitar wanabe.” Laz snapped, her hands twitching slightly as dark energy surrounded them.
“Wanabe? I think not stiches, I want to see if you’re any better than your sister, bitch didn’t put up to much of a fight this time round.”
“What do you mean this time?” Laz growled.
The figure walked forward with an argont swagger. “Bout six months ago I tried to bring her in, bitch put up a lot of fight but got away in the end, this time we pulled her from her bed, and she couldn’t stop us.”
Laz felt her gut lurch as she remembered the night Gir came home from a date with Patti, Gir had been beaten up pretty badly, but she refused to say who had done it to her. Now, standing less that four feet from her, was the one responsible.
Letting out a feral scream, Laz threw herself at the girl, Darkness trailing form her hands and she swung. Her opponent ducked to one side and slammed a fist into her ribs, there was a brief smell of ozone before electricity poured into Laz, sending her reeling.
“Who the fuck are you?” Laz snarled as she got her feet.
Electricity crackled around her hand. “Tesla Blade, and I’m gonna enjoy kicking your ass.” 

Invader Dib 05

Patir-ette burst through the wall, no real coherent through more than “find Gir” running through her head. Wave after wave of the enemy troops hurled them selves at her, but it was like throwing pebbles at a wall. Wading into the mob, she started swinging, her blows hit with the force of a rocket powered wrecking ball. Golems flew apart under her onslaught, filling the air with blackish blood and the smell of rotting meat.
Grabbing the last one, she slammed him through the wall, its body smashed through it like it was paper, revealing another room. Stepping thought the hole, she dropped what was left of the golem and took in her surroundings.
The room looked like some sort of high tech tomb, row upon row of glass coffins stretched to the roof. While at the end of the room was large computer, several of screens of different sizes surrounded it, wired alien glyphs scrawled across them.
Patti dropped the goon she was fighting and floated closer, her jaw dropping when she saw what was hooked in to the computer.
Hanging from it in some almost twisted cyber crucifixion, hung Gir. she was dressed in a simple surgical gown, a mass off wires trailed from behind her ears in to the machine behind her.
Patti flew across the room to Gir, who could do this to her? As she landed in front of her, she slowly looked up, her eyes staring blankly at Patti.
“Who… who’s there?” Gir question shocked Patti, couldn’t she see her?
“Gir, it’s me, Patti… are you … are you okay?”
“Patti? Where are you? I can’t see.” Gir voice was filled with panic and she turned her head left to right.
Patti hugged her, tears rolling down her face. “Its okay Gir, I’m here.”
“Patti, you have to be carful, he might still be her.”
“Who?”
Before Patti could turn around to get a look of the room, she felt a blinding pain erupt behind her eyes. With a slight whimper she fell to the ground, a malevolent presence blasting reaching into her mind. a noise that alternated between high pitch static and whispering voices echoed through her head. She rolled on to her back and looked up as a figure slowly descended form the darkness of the ceiling.
She dragged herself to her feet as the figure landed in front of her. He was dressed in blue power armor with a simple trench coat pulled on top.
“Who are you and what the hell did you do to Gir?” Patti barked at the figure.
The figure held out a hand as another blast of noise exploded in Patti’s head, as she slipped to the ground the figure raised his face plate.
“I am Dib.” He replied in a flat tone. “And to answer your second question, I turned off all neural connections between Gir eyes and her brain, couldn’t risk her try this again.”
Patti looked up and felt her stomach lurch, the right half of Dibs face was almost burnt off, but instead of the pale off white of enamel, there was the dull gleam of metal.
“What are you?”
Dib just reached out, a wave of psychic force picked up Patti and slammed her against the floor.
“I believe that you are not in the position to be asking questions.” Dib said as he blasted Patti with another wave of psionic energy before following up with a blast of azure lightning.
Gir’s blind eyes started casting around the room. “Patti? Where are you? Don’t leave me!”
The pure fear in Gir’s voice cut through the pain, slowly Patti lurched to her feet and charged at Dib, she would make the monster pay for what he did to her.
***
Seraph slumped slightly as the last of the golems fell, Tish’s imp cackling as they jumped up and down on it. He sat himself against a wall and fumbled at his belt for a drink bottle, it seamed as if they had been at this for hours, every now and again they would find a room that Patti had been through, her rampage had caused several of them to collapsed in on themselves.
He stood up and growled, it felt like they had been here for hours and they were still no closer to finding the others, he slammed his fist against the wall and swore. Tish stepped over to him. “Hey, you okay Seraph?” she asked.
He paused before answering. “No… it feels like we’ve been running around in circles almost, we’re no closere to finding Gir.” His face twisted for a moment. “.. I feel like I’m failing her Tish.”
Looking up and him Tish stood on her toes and knocked on his helmet. “And you think getting all moopie will help? Come on Seraph, focuses.”
Seraph looked down at her, she was right, looking down he noticed something. “What’s that?”
Tish followed his gaze. “Seraph, it is neither the time or the place to stare at my boobs.” She snaped.
“No, that’s not what I meant.” He stepped back and pointed at the floor. “What’s that?”
Tish looked at what he was pointing at, through the mesh floor, she could just make out a room, blue light making it stand out against the darkness. She grinned and looked back at Seraph. “Might be where they have Gir, but how do we get down there?”
Seraph looked around. “I think I have an idea… but it’s a bit risky.”
“What is it?”
Seraph hand started to glow as he knelt down. “You might want to step back.” He brought back his fist and slammed it against the floor, the metal buckling under the blow.
***
Laz slid across the floor, her body screaming in pain as electricity burnt along her nerves. Her initial berserk rage had just resulted in her getting fried from Tesla Blades onslaught. She ripped her visor off and threw it to one side, it had practically been rendered useless, half the functions had stoped working and the rest were displaying faulty data.
She got to her feet as Tesla strode up to her. “there’s no point fighting me, I’m just better than… you…” her voice trailed off an she took a step back as she saw Laz’s face. “What the hell are you?”
Laz grinned, before her opponent could recover from the shock of seeing her face, she was upon her, fist blurring as the darkness poured through her and tore in to teslas armor. A blast of electricity knocked her back and Tesla jumped to one side.
“Damn patchwork freak, I’ll get you for that.” Tesla growled.
Laz scuttled into the shadows, she needs a strategy, she had to find a way to get her off balance again. She could just make out Tesla muttering, about being shown up by some nobody. Pulling deeper into the shadows, Laz grinned as an idea formed.
“Oi, zap bug! You seam pretty proud about taking down Gir, the way I heard it, you needed a small army to grab her.” Laz called out, hoping her plan would work.
“Shut up, I took that bitch down no sweat.” Tesla snarled, sending a wave of lightning Laz’s way.
Jumping out of the way, Laz rolled to her feet and threw a wave of darkness out, knocking Tesla off her feet. “Ooh, must be such a big bad scary villain to steal a sleeping girl out of her bed. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t remember hearing anything about girls in armor when Gir was taken… so you probably didn’t do anything but leech off some one else’s accomplishments.”
Tesla let out a roar as the air around her crackled with electric discharges, Laz ducked back into the shadows and grinned, her plan had worked, now Tesla was the one swinging like a wild animal.
Dogging her Blows Laz let off a few more taunts. “So I’m fighting what? The brown nosier? If so, I’m kind of disappointed, I would have expected the big bad to send something half decent to try and stop me.”
She rolled to one side as Tesla let lose another blast of electricity. As she got to her feet she felt a pipe behind her, giving it a quick glance she smiled. “Oi zappy, over here!” she called.
Tesla snarled and swung with a blow that resembled a thunder head. Laz leapt over her head and grinned and Tesla sunk her arm up to the elbow in a water main. She screamed as her suit shorted out, great bolts of lighting rippled across her before eventually dying out.
Laz walked up to her as she staggered back, her suit reeked of ozone and burnt electronics. Laz punched her in the face. “Game over bitch.” She said.
“Fucking… Hax.” Tesla mutters as she fell to the ground, Laz checked her pulse, the bitch was gonna live, but Laz didn’t feel like wasting a Zig tag on her.
Looking around, Laz spotted the hole in the roof that she fell through. With a quick jump, she stared making her way back up, hoping that the others were okay.
***
Patti and Dib bounced across the room, her blows missing by inches while he keep tagging her with burst of lightning, she finally managed to land a blow that sent him flying across the room, crashing into one of the glass coffins.
She landed and ran to Gir, hoping to pull her free of the machine she when she felt something scrabble at the back of her mind. Turning she watched as Dib slowly raised from the remains of the coffin, his armor scratches and a large dint where Patti had hit him. He reached out his hand and she felt the horrid sensation of a psionic attack, but this was different, along with the white noise she could hear voices.
Freak… outcast… unclean… monster… Patti clutched at her head, voices of the past echoed in her mind, their taunts and cries made her stomach turn as she sank to her knees. “No... Its not like that… stop it… stop it.” She whimpered.
Dib walked over to her. “Who would think that suck a proud hero could have such secrets Annette… or should I say Jack?”
Patti curled in on herself as the voices grew louder and louder, drowning out everything. She was vaguely aware of Dib speaking as she tried to crawl away from the accusations.
She rolled on to her back and looked up to see Dib hovering over her, a slight glow around his head. “I’ll give you credit for lasting this long, but now it think it’s time to end it, good bye Patti.” He raised his hand, blue light crackling around his head.
Dib paused as something splashed against his armor, he stoped his mental attack on Patti and brushed his finger along his shoulder, pulling it away to find it covered in molten metal. Looking up she saw a section of the roof was deforming, glowing almost white as droplets of metal fell down.
He turned to run, but stopped as Patti Grabbed his left foot and rammed it into the ground, pinning him in place. “Burn Fucker.” She hisses and rolled away as the section of the roof collapsed, a lance of brilliant blue light piercing it beforeit collapsed in a heap of molten slag dropped, slammed into Dib and burrying him burying him.
Patti looked up to see Seraph descending through the hole, Tish hanging form his back. As soon as they touched down Seraph ran to Gir’s side. “Gir, are you okay?” he asked as her reached her.
Gir turned. “Daddy? Where are you?”
Seraph hugged her. “I’m here Gir, were gonna get you out.” He turned to Tish. “Check on Patti while I try to get Gir out.” he started fiddling with the wires that lead into the back of Gir’s ears.
As Tish went to Patti’s side, sorely tempted to rip the girl a new one for running ahead like she did, she saw the slag pile start to rock. “Seraph, get over here.”
Seraph turned as the Slag heap exploded, sending shrapnel everywhere, Patti pushed Tish behind her and took the brunt of the blast while Seraph got a light peppering, wincing as a few pieces got through his armor. Rising from the remains, smoke wafting form his scorched black armor, was Dib.
“So… it looks like everyone’s here, I guess it’s time to step things up.” he rasped as he raised his hands, palms facing the roof.
Around the room, the surviving glass coffins opened one by one, dull growls emanating from with in. Tish spun and saw massive creatures pull themselves free, their bodies were horrid half formed messes stretched over distorted skeletons. Each one had some form of optic array wired directly into their malformed skulls.
There were nine creatures in total climbed out and started lumbering towards them, the stench of rotting meat and some form of preservatives. Dib chuckled as he floated away. “I think I’ve spent enough time dallying with you, the beast should keep you occupied.” A section of the wall slid to one side and Dib flew through it.
“Like hell you’re getting away that easily, Tish, help Gir and Patti, that fuckers mine.” Seraph yelled as he shot over the beasts and after Dib. A blast of energy ripping the door from its frame as it started to close.
Tish looked around, she had nine uglys, a Tank that looked like she was half dead and a girl that was in no condition to fight. Grinning she summoned up her imp. “okay, who’s first?”  

I'm loveing the ficlets DS, they are really quite good (PS:NeedMoar Terr :p jk)

Invader Dib 06

Blade base Epsilon.
Dib stood in the caverness reactor room, a left over from the bases days as an Arachnos outpost and quite possibly the only part of the base he had used pure Irken tech in, and swore. While he had planed for failure, he hadn't planed for one of such magnitude, he had wasted too much time with Patri-ette and his armor had only just survived the entrance of the other two.
Turning he pulled several cords from his gauntlet and hooked them into the control panel, there was always more than one way to deal with this sort of thing. It would be a shame to destroy the base, but it had served its purpose. It was time to return it to the way he found it, a smoking ruin.
He looked up from entering the codes that would cause the reactor to melt down when he picked up something, a mind full of rage heading right at him. Spinning, he watched as the wall exploded and floating through the smoking hole was Seraph, his armor now a black with crimson edging.
"So, rather than take your daughter" Dib practically spat the word. "You decided to chase after me. And for what reason? Vengeance? Justice?"
Seraph leapt across the room and slugged Dib. "Shut the fuck up you asshole." He growled as he slammed his fist against Dib's face, cracking the armor.
Dib threw a wave of lighting at Seraph and quickly hovered out of striking range. "So, the hero is giving into revenge? Why? It's not like Gir is a real person anyway. She's just some sad little Sexdroid with a faulty personality matrix." Dib could practically feel the anger boiling at that comment.
"Don't you dare call her that!" Seraph bellowed as he blasted Dib, the energy flickered between a pale blue and a horrid rust red.
Dib spun out of the way and zapped Seraph again. "Why shouldn't I? It is the truth, Gir is a joke, something given to an incompetent idiot in the hopes he would get himself killed."
Dib lashed out again, this time with his mind. He plunged into Seraphs head, tasting his rage... and something else. "Ahhh, now I understand. It's fear that drives you, fear that this happily little life you've built yourself will be torn apart, fear that you will end up all alone."
"Get out of my head freak." Seraph growled as he let loose a torrent of energy.
Dib ducked under it and let loose with a psionic blast that bounced Seraph of the nearest wall. "Why fight for it? If you want a Saber to look after so badly, just get another one. It's not like their rare or anything."
"What would something like you know about Family?"
Dib snorted. "Family? What use is it? They do nothing but hold you back, drag you down." A small nimbus of lighting formed around Dib's hand. "Distractions... nothing more." Dib lashed out, knocking Seraph to the ground.
"I think this has dragged on long enough." Dib landed and walked towards Seraph, a constant stream of electricity pouring from his hand. "Now, it is time to die."
Blue lightning arced across Seraphs body causing him to writhe in pain, Dib stopping his onslaught every now and again to mentally pick up Seraph and slam him against the floor.
Seraph tried to drag himself to his feet, but Dib blasted him again, sending Seraph sliding to the edge of the platform. Calmly Dib walked up to the edge and kicked Seraph over. He watched Seraph tumble as he vanish in to the gloom. "Now... where was I?" he muttered as he walked back to the console.
***
Laz blitzed down the corridor towards the sound of combat, it seamed to take forever to get back from what was probably the sewers, she rounded a corner and found herself in a large room, Tish and Patti facing off against several massive monsters.
With out even pausing, she launch herself into the back of the nearest one, tendrils of dark energy erupting from beneath it and pining it in place as she tore it back to shreds.
As it fell forward she leaped over its body and landed next to Patti. "So, you ditched me to play with the big boys?" she joked while dodging a clumsy swing from one of the beasts.
Patti grabbed one of the beasts by the arm and threw against the wall. "Laz, you help Tish, I'm getting Gir." she muttered, only now did Laz notice how pale she was.
"Kay, grab Gir, I'll cover you."
Patti nodded and hover out of the fight as Laz tackled one of the beasts, looking around she could just make out Tish blurring around, her imp's clambering all over the place, she noticed that Seraph wasn't present.
"Hey! Where's Dad?" she called.
Tish rolled out of the way of one beast and caused flames to leap up around it's feet. "Chasing the big bad." She called, quickly jumping to another target.
Laz turned her attention back to the beast, and hoped he was okay.
***
Seraph slowly came to, his fall into the darkness had been interrupted by a pipe, then the few pipes below then eventually a walkway. He rolled on to his side and winced as he quickly made a mental checklist of his injuries. He was suffering some electrical burns, god knew how many minor cuts and what felt like some cracked ribs. it was a minor miracle he was able to move.
He traced a sigle on his arm and let out a slight sigh as ice started to form across his body, healing up the worst of his wounds. Not waiting for it to finish, he cast a flight spell and started hovering up, he still had to deal with Dib.
Seraph could feel the anger starting to boil in him, he would grab Dib, make him pay for hurting his family, Kill... He paused and clamped down on his rage. No, charging in blindly had nearly got him killed, it was time to try something different. Carefully, he pulled out a tarot card and grinned, a plan forming in his head.
***
Dib input the last code and hit enter, it was done. In twenty minutes the reactor would unleash an intense burst of heat that would vaporise everything organic in the base, then its core would detonate, destroying what the heat wave didn't, effectively gutting the base and leaving no trace he was there.
He typed in the command and dropped the jamming signal, then broadcast to all the reaming Blades and Golems to evacuate the base. A side effect of dropping the jamming would mean that some of the heroes would escape, but it was an acceptable loss.
He turned and was about to make his way towards one of the escape tunnels when a blast of blue energy slammed into him, smashing him against the wall. He quickly got to his feet and ducked as another blast tore up the ground where he had been lying.
Dib's hands glowed as he prepared to attack back. "It seams you just don't know when to give up, do you?" He growled.
His only reply was a quick succession of Blast that tore into the floor, tearing up great hunks of metal. Dib sending a blast of lightning in the general direction, only to have the return volley come form directly above.
He reached out with his mind and tried to pinpoint Seraph's location, he picked up a slight flicker before a blast hit him from behind. Dib swore and spun, just as Seraph rocketed by, pausing only long enough to punch him in the face. There was a sickening crunch as Dib's visor shattered and he felt his nose break.
He pulled his helmet off and threw it to one side, just in time for Seraph to blast him again. "Damn it, Stay still!" he yelled and threw out wave after wave of lightning.
One blast clipped Seraph and set him tumbling, as Dib ran over to deal another blow, Seraph quickly got to his feet and weaved a pattern with his hands. A small blizzard surrounded Dib, slowing his movement and impeding his vision. Dib tried to fight against it, but it was no good, his armor was getting sluggish, restricting his movement.
He lashed again with his mind and managed to knock Seraph back, a card dropping from his hand. As the card fell, Dib noticed Seraph had slowed down slightly. Of course, he's using some sort of talisman to boost himself. He struggled to walk forward, trying to get in range to try and blast Seraph's mind directly.
He struggled to see Seraph thought the mini blizzard, it was almost like walking through syrup. "Oi! Over here." Seraphs voice came from behind him. Dib tried to spin to face him, facing him just in time to see Seraph charge him, knocking them both over the ledge.
As the fell the fight devolved into a brutal slugfest, each one trying to get the upper hand, trying not to be the one that hit the ground first. Dib let out a yelp of pain as they slammed into some piping, before slamming down into the pool of coolant that surrounded the reactor.
***
Laz watched as the last of the beast fled, limping away at full speed. Turning she saw that Patti had managed to pull Gir free of the computers and was clutching on to her for dear life.
"Okay, we got Gir, Patti and Tish, you head out, I'm gonna look for dad." Laz turned and went to leave when she felt someone grab her wrist. Turing she saw Tish give her a disapproving look.
"We have to get Gir out... and Patti's in no shape to carry her alone Laz." Tish said. "Let me go, I'm faster and I can probably pull him out of what ever screw up he's goten into, okay."
Laz reluctantly nodded. "Okay... good luck."
Tish grinned and gave the girls a quick speed boost before zipping down the tunnel Seraph had taken. Laz stepped up to Patti. "Come on, let's go." They slung Gir between them and started for what they though was the exit.
***
Seraph gasped for air as he dragged himself from the coolant pool, his body aching from a combination of cold and the impact, even though it looked like Dib had hit first, it had still felt slamming into a brick wall. As he rolled onto his side, he looked around, seeing if Dib had surfaced.
He spotted Dib and winced, he had hit the pool... or at least his legs did, his upper body had hit the edge and cracked his armor open like an egg. Seraph dragged himself over to have a closer look, inside the armor was a much smaller man, his chest had been torn open revealing metal ribs over what looked like synthetic organs, every now and again there was faint movement, suggesting Dib was still alive.
"So... that's why you were so hard to stop, your a bloody cyborg." Seraph muttered.
"Indeed... Seraph." Dib rasped as he turned slightly to face him. "So... now you have defeated me... you plan to kill me?"
Seraph looked down, it would be all too easy, the anger that fueled him earlier started to stir. "No Dib... I won't kill you." he replied as his armor dissipated, leaving him in his badly torn up civvies. "I'm gona drag you back to Paragon. I am gona make you pay for your crimes. You are gona rot in the deepest part of the Zig."
Dib snorted. "And this... is the problem with heroes." He raised his hand weakly and pointed it at Seraph. "You don't... do what is needed."
Before Seraph could question what Dib meant, there was a horrid meaty thunk and a sharp pain in his side. He looked see a bloody sliver of metal was now jutting out of Dib's chest, looking down at himself, Seraph could see blood forming from where the spine had passed through his side.
"What the?" he asked, looking at Dib.
Dib let out a sicking rattle, black blood bubbling from his mouth. "My masters... in Arachnos would never let me live... not after a failure like this..." he reached up with his hand and grabbed the spine, twisting it in the wound. "And this way... I can take you... with me." He wrenched the spine out, blood spraying up from the wound.
He watched as the life drained from Dib. "Bloody cop out." He muttered and kicked the body in disgust, it slipped into the pool and quickly vanished from sight. He tired to get to his feet but slumped down, blood flowing freely from his injury.
Seraph grabbed his mediport from his pocket as swore as he pulled out a pile of broken plastic and wiring, it must of took a hit in the fight. "Great... what else can go wrong?" He muttered, and regretted it immediately as a voice boomed over the base's PA system.
"Self distruct in T minuses three minutes and counting."
".... I should of seen that coming." he muttered as he started dragging himself across the floor, trying to find a way out when to his surprise his com squawked. He pulled it from his belt and called into it. "hello, hello, anyone there?"
There was a burst of static and Seraph heard a voice. "Yo, this is Tish, can you hear me Seraph?"
"Yeah, what happened is Gir okay?"
"She's okay, Laz and Patti are getting her out and what ever was blocking us turned tail, how you holden up?"
"Well, Dib's dead and I'm bleeding out and the base is going to explode, so I'm just peachy."
He could practically hear Tish's represed giggle over the com. "Come on, you'r not that bad."
"Blood loss making me a bit..." Seraph trailed off a moment and blinked, everything was starting to swim. "Woozy... don't think I can get out under my own steam."
Seraph slumped down, his strength leavening him. As his eyes drooped, he was dully aware of Tish's voice over the com before he felt the pull of a teleport.
***
When he came too he saw Tish and a longbow medic leaning over him. He was apparently outside, he tried to sit up but Tish pushed him back down. "Whoa there cowboy, you ain't in any shape to be moving." she said with a slight smile. "But ya did good, even if ya ran off by ya self ya big idiot."
"Is Gir okay?" Seraph muttered, trying to look around.
"Yeah, she's already on her way back to Paragon, Patti's practically glued to her. so, how's it feel to be the big damn hero?"
"Like I was hit by a Mack truck and need a week of bed rest."
Tish smirked. "I think you earned it." She gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Come on, let's go."
Seraph felt a lurch as he was lifted off the ground and carried off, a medic leaned over and injected some pain killers into him, he'd done it, been that big damn hero, but now, the hero needed some rest. He grinned as he drifted off, yeah, rest would be good 

Invader Dib 07

10th of November
Atlas Park Hospital
Gir sat in her hospital bed and sighed. She was bored and wanted to go home, it had been several days since her abduction and rescue. While the doctors had said she was physically healthy, there were still concerns about her mental state.
Dib had forced his way into her mind, while he only copied some data, the feeling of having someone crawl around in her head against her will still gave her nightmares that left her feeling weak and hollow, but at least she was getting some help with that. Looking over, she smiled at the sleeping form of Patti. Ever since they had rescued her, Patti had refused to leave her side.
She was tempted to start looking through some of the presents she'd been given when she heard shouting coming from the hallway, Patti quickly woke and moved to the door, but Gir waved at her to step back when she recognized one of the voices.
"Look, I can walk, yes? Then get out of my way."
"Mister Seraph, you're still recovering, you've had over half your ribs cracked and several internal organs suffered several lacerations. You shouldn't even be walking!"
The door opened and Seraph staggered in, dressed in his civvies, Gir noticed the bulk of bandages under his shirt, an exasperated nurse followed him in. "Mister Seraph, you should go back to your room immediately, your going to tear open your stitches if you keep this up." she exclaimed.
Seraph turned. "I have been here several days now, I wish to see my daughter, and if I do mess my self up... stuff it. I'm footing the bill anyway, so you can milk some more cash out of me."
The nurse mutters something about taking it up with her superior and left the room, when she was gone Seraph walked to the bed and gave Gir a hug. "God Gir, you okay? They taking care of you and all that?"
Gir smiled and carefully returned the hug. "Yeah daddy, they say my body's okay, but they still want to do some checks on my head... to make sure..." she trailed off, a pained look on her face.
Seraph tightened the hug. "Its okay Gir, he's gone now... he can never hurt you again." He replied.
Patti came over and taped Seraph on the shoulder. "You sure dad, Is he really gone?" a slight look of doubt on her face.
"Yeah... he's gone, even if he did survive tearing a hole in his own heart, there's no way he could have survived the blast when the base blew."
Patti nodded. "And what about what that nurse said?" Seraph was about to answer when the door opened and in walked the nurse followed by Tish. "Mister Seraph, this young lady was looking for you. Also, I have orders to make sure you return to your room."
Seraph hoped off the bed and held his arms out. "Come on, I made it here with out keeling over, I'm okay."
Tish gave him an evil grin. "Oh really?" she asked, giving him a slight poke in the chest.
Seraph let out an almost feeble whimper and doubled up, the color draining from his face. "Traitor." He wheezes as he slid to the ground.
Tish shook her head and smiled. "You're the one that said you needed a week of rest, now come on or I'll poke you again."
Seraph got to his feet and grumbled. "Okay, okay, I'll go." He turned to Gir and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Seeing as I'm not allowed to come see you, maybe next time you can pay me the visit?"
Gir gave him another cautious hug. "Okay daddy, I'll see you later."
She and Patti giggled at Tish helped Seraph up and lead him out of the room, when the door closed Gir leaned back on the bed, all the excitement had left her a little tired. "Patti, I'm gonna have a nap... can you wake me up if something happens... or I have a nightmare?"
Patti leaned over and kissed Gir. "Okay... them maybe if your up to it, a sponge bath?" Patti gave Gir a cheeky grin.
"Ooooh, yes please." Gir smiled as she drifted off.
***
Seraph grumbled as he climbed back into his bed, trying not to show how much the trip to Gir's room had tired him. When he was finally settled, the nurse asked Tish to make sure he didn't do anything to aggravate his wounds before leaving.
Tish lent on the side of the bed. "Sooo, beside you annoying the staff, I take it everything's going okay?" she asked.
Seraph made himself comfortable. "Yeah, talked to Ifrit and the head of the sabers, while they didn't like what I did, they understand why I did it. Also had a talk with some longbow reps that went in to the base."
"Oh, what did they have to say?"
"They dug through what was left, found a whole bunch of stuff that points to it actually being a spider base, they thought it had been abandon ages ago due the shivians. They also found the remains of Dib's body."
"And?"
"His head and most of his spine was missing, they believe that it was probably destroyed in the blast.... But I don't know I can't shake the feeling.... Ah never mind, you don't need to hear me being paranoid."
"Well, if you don't want talk about it, that's okay, now shove over a bit." Seraph shuffled to on side so Tish could sit on the bed. "Sooo Seraph, wana continue our interrupted movie night?"
Seraph raised an eyebrow then smiled. "Sure, I do warn you, I think the nurse slipped me some pain killers. so I might drift off or something."
Tish giggled "kay, just don't snore or anything, okay?"
He smiled and rolled his eye's as he turn the TV on and relaxed.
***
White manor
Jack sat in the darkened control room, he was dressed in his civilian cloths, he didn't what he was about to do to shame the name of the patriot. He slowly made his way to the elevator and went up to the mansion, his tread was leaden, like a dead man walking. Stoping outside of Mimi's room, he entered the code and unlocked it.
As the door swung open, he say Mimi was lying on the bed, after the incident with the room had been striped of anything that could be used as a weapon, leaving it like a prison cell. She slowly rolled over and looked at jack, a slight look of curiosity in her gaze.
Jack opened the door wide and stepped out of the way. "Mimi... you're free to go." He muttered, feeling the word almost turn to ash in his mouth.
She looked at him blankly. "But... what about my crimes?"
"I don't want to see any harm come to you... so.... I'm letting you go."
"Jack, your going to be aiding a criminal... The Patriot-"
He cut her off. "I'm not doing this as the Patriot... he retired three hours ago... I'm doing this as Jack White... the man that loves you." the last sentence was almost a whisper.
Mimi stepped up to him. "Jack... I..."
"Please, go... but maybe one day when this is all over... I hope you can come back..."
Mimi nodded and stood on her toes to kiss Him, she let it linger for a few seconds stepping back, as she faded into the shadows. Jack saw a tear roll down her face. "Thank you" she said as she faded into the shadows, after a few seconds, Jack knew he was alone.  

Epilogue 01

12th of November
Nerva Apapeligo
Blade base Alpha
The Blades milled in the conference room, muttering in uncertain voices. It had been a week since they had initiated project invader.
Initially it had been successful, they had captured the target and got the data, it had quickly fallen apart after the heroes had got involved.
They had lost two of their bases, Caz was currently recovering from extreme electrical burns, Dib was dead and Isabel had locked herself in one of the gen labs, muttering about a special mission.
The blades were in shambles and it was only so long till some one at Crey noticed this.
Almost as if summoned by there fear, the door to the room opened and three Scimitars, one tall one and two short ones, strode in decked out in full armor. The lead one moved to the centre of the room before addressed the Blades. “I have been sent here on the order of Crey to see director membrain, where is he?.”
Teyla stepped forward. “Director membrain is currently… indisposed, he should be back…”
She trailed off as the lead scimitar unhooked a massive war mace from her back and brought it to bear, the two other slid out their own weapons. “I will not ask again, where is Dib?”
“I know where he is.” They turned to see Isabel standing in the doorway, dirt and blood was smeared all over her face and streaked through her hair. “Follow me.” She was about to leave the room when one of the short Scimitars stepped forward and drew her sword.
“No, I think he should come to us.” She spoke in an emotionless tone.
Isabel shock her head. “No no… has to come with me, mission, is important, yes yes…” she slowly trailed off, her voice dropping to nothing more than a murmur.
The scimitar’s hand darted out and grabbed Isabel by the neck. “Bring him to us Now!” she yelled as she slammed Isabel against the nearest wall.
Isabel looked down at the hand, the let out an ear piercing squeal. The Blades scatter to the corners of the room as something large bowled through the doorway and threw the Scimitar to the centre of the room. before she could recover it lumbered up and grabbed her in a massive claw.
Isabel quickly ducked behind the beast as it let out another roar, its single optic focusing on the woman in it had. “Crush her Mr B.” she yelled at the beast. The optic narrowed on the scimitar as its hand started to squeeze her.
The other simitar slept forward to attack when a voice barked from the door. “what the hell is going on here.” Standing in the doorway was Dib, besides a sickly pallor to his skin, looking perfectly normal.
The tallest Scimitar lowered her weapon and was about to say something when the second short one leapt at Dib. There was a blast of electricity and she was sent flying across the room. Dib lowered his hand and turned to the last Scimitar. “I will repeat myself, what is going on here?”
The remaining Scimitar looked around and then removed her helmet a cyber eye wired and clicks in her right eye. “Director Membrain, I was sent to investigate the events of what happened at your outpost in bloody bay.”
Dib gave her a slight grin. “Ahhh, Miss Natalen, it has been a while, since we last talked, I’m guessing that they are your associates.” He gestured to the two other Scimitars.
Lana looked at the two others, one was struggling in the beast vice like grip, her armor starting to make a cracking noise while the other laid on the ground twitching slightly.
“Yes, they decided to prove how tough they were against one of the smaller projects… but apparently they underestimated you.” her left eye narrowed. “That is why I am here.”
Dib flashed another almost reptilian grin. “Ah… I was somewhat delayed in giving my report, but if you wish I can debrief you on the events.”
She nodded. “That will be acceptable.”
“And what of your associates? They will probably require medical attention.”
Lana shrugged. “They acted without my orders, so they can accept their punishment.”
“Ahh, very well then.” Dib waved at the beast. “Isabel, get your pet to let go its toy.”
Isabel scuttled around the beast and whispered to it. Letting out a slight groan it dropped the scimitar and left the room, Isabel scuttled after it.
“Now then miss Natalen, what is it you wish to know?”
“Crey would like to know everything that happen involving project invader, along with any information you managed to acquire.”
“Very well, if you would follow me, we can discuss this in my office.” He motioned towards the door. “Oh and Teyla, can you please escort miss Natalens assistants out?”
Teyla jumped down and poked one of them with her boot. “And what if they resist?”
“Then see if Isabel will help, she seams rather adapt at getting the beasts to obey her orders.”
Teyla nodded and knelt next to the one Dib had zapped.
He turned to Lana. “Shall we?”
“Very well.”
***
2 hours later.
Lana went over the tablet Dib had given her, every now glancing at him as he lounged behind his desk, and sighed. “You spin a good tale, but I am finding several parts hard to swallow.”
Dib pour himself a glass of water. “Oh, and what is so hard to believe?”
“For starters, that this Saber you captured was apparently a no one, how can you expect me to believe that when a group of high powered heroes broke into your facility and rescued her?”
Dib chuckled. “I stated her civilian ID was of no real interest, some bumbling girl that probably lucked upon the armor, as to why the heroes rescused her? Tell me, why has project Scimitar never tried to capture a Saber?”
Lana blinked, but before she could reply, Dib continued. “The Sabers are an extremely strong military group, almost a private army. It is my belief that an organisation that big has many secrets that they don’t want Crey finding out.”
“So your sujesting that the rescue was to prevent you learning any of these “secrets” Director?”
“It is the most logical outcome, is it not?”
Shaking her head she moved on to the next item. “Why did you see fit to masquerade as a member of Arachnos for this operation?”
“To protect Crey of course.”
She stared at him. “Elaborate.”
“If it had been a Crey operative that had kidnapped a saber, how many of the countess facilities would have been raided in retaliation? How many labs ransacked? How many investments destroyed? And given the fact that if I had survived such a failure, how long till the countess demands my head on a sliver plater?”
Lana smirked. “So was it a act of loyalty or self preservation?”
“Can’t it be both?”
“That brings up the final question, your death. Longbow discovered your body and our agents confirmed it was a genetic match to you and yet here you are. How?”
Dib took a sip from his glass and smiled. “Ahhh, the big question. I had planed for all potential outcomes and had contingencies set up.”
Lana scoffed. “You expect me to believe that you planed for your own death?”
“Yes, the odds of surviving was rather low, even with out heroic intervention.”
“Very well then, so how did you survive?”
Dib let out a sigh. “I had given Teyal a case containing all the data I had stored at that outpost and a genetic sample she was to have prepped for cloning. Then, I gave Isabel a special set of orders. If I was to be captured or killed, she was to take my head.”
For a moment Lana thought she saw a look of sorrow on Dib’s face before he continued. “I had a small stasis unit implanted at the base of my skull, if my vitals were to cut out, it would activate and put my brain into suspended animation until deactivated.
“It didn’t take long for my brain to be transferred to my new body, but… unfortunately the strain of the mission has undone much of the work I have done with Isabel.” Dib turned away from Lana. “Are there anymore questions.”
“Not for now, if you excuse me for a moment, I must report this and see what is instore for you.” She picked up her helmet and slipped it on. Opening a secure channel she relayed all that she had learnt, she waited as it was processed before receiving a reply.
Lana read the reply and grinned, pulling her helmet off she stood up and addressed Dib. “Director membrain, the countess would like to congratulate you on all that you have archived, apparently she has underestimated you. But unfortunelty you have caused a bit of trouble and she believes it would be safer for you to take a vacation, at least till the fallout form this has blown over.
“You will be transferred to one of our facilities in Africa. There you can see how well your Golems are doing in the field. When we believe it is safe, you shale be allowed to return.”
Dib steeple his hands. “And who will be running my facilities here during my absence?”
“That would be me Director Membrain.” She said with a twisted smirk. 

Epilogue 02

13th of November
The White Estate
Founder’s Falls
The rain was coming down around White Manor, one in a series of gray rainy days that the manor house had seen of late. Very fitting weather for the mood of the man who owned said manor - one Colonel Jack White, also known as the Patriot.
A week ago, he had discovered his girlfriend, the love of his life, was actually an undercover agent working for a madman in the Rogue Islands named “Dib”. Her presence had allowed his sister’s girlfriend to be captured by said madman.
And he had let her go.
He let her go because deep down, he knew MiMi wasn't evil, and that she would come back to him. He remembered the old saying he had quoted at that time. If you love someone, set them free. If they come back to you, they’re yours; if they do not, they never were.
It had been a week, and she hadn’t come back.
Jack hadn’t donned the Patriot costume since he let her go, Patti had suspended his licences. He hadn’t left the house. He just sat in his study and moped.
Patti was off helping Gir overcome the trauma of what happened. Giles had taken the day off, since Jack wasn’t doing anything and Patti was out.
Jack was sitting in his study watching the rain fall. His eyes kept glancing between that and the form on his desk.
U.S. Army Form 829-14/J: Request for permission to be reinstated to Active Duty.
Jack took a breath, and reached over to his desk. Perhaps he wasn’t meant to have a family. Perhaps the Army was his true home after all. He took a ballpoint pen from the desk drawer and was moments of adding his John Hancock to the form when the Manor’s doorbell rang.
Sighing to himself, Jack hesitated before dropping the pen on his desk and headed out into the door, pausing only to make sure his over robe was properly tied. He opened the door.
There, standing in the rain was MiMi, looking very much like a drowned rabbit. A scared drowned rabbit. She looked up into Jack’s face and said simply. “I came back.”
Jack’s heart leapt into his throat as he reached out and brought MiMi in out of the rain, embracing MiMi’s wet form in a huge hug. Water was getting on his robe and pyjamas, abut he didn’t care. He just hugged her tightly, and tried to ignore the tears coming out of his eyes.
MiMi tensed at first; afraid the powerful man would crush her. However, after a moment she relaxed and snuggled into the hug a bit glad for his presence as much as his warmth. “I came back.... because it was the right thing to do... wasn't it?”
Jack looked at her, his eyes seeming to try to soak up all of her at once. He leaned in and without answering, pulled her into a kiss. An intense, passionate kiss.
***
When Jack woke up the next morning he saw Mimi standing by the window wrapped in his robe, looking out over founders fall.
Jack pulled the sheets around himself and walked over to her. “Is everything all right?” he asked.
She turned to him, sorrow etched on her face. “This can’t last Jack.” She whispered.
“What can’t?”
“This” she waved at the room. “You… you’ve been soon nice to me, but I don’t deserve it.”
Jack gave her a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”
“I have stolen, blackmailed, kidnapped and murdered, I have committed more crimes than I can think of.” She let out a slight sob. “A monster like me doesn’t deserve a happily ever after.”
Jack pulled her into a hug. “You’re not a monster.” He put a finger against her lips to stop her protest. “You made the choice to turn away from that, you offered help when you knew it could have killed you and when given a chance to flee… you came back.”
Mimi slumped against him. “But… what about my crimes?”
“We can’t make them go away, but I think we can find a way to help you with them.”
Mimi looked confused. “What do you mean help?”
Jack gave her a smile. “Well, you could be placed under house arrest until your hearing.”
“Hearing?”
“Yes, if you want to, their planning a trial system to aid villains that wish to be something better, to become heroes. That is... If you want to”
Mimi’s jaw dropped. “A hero… me?”
“Yes… but there’s something else I wanted to ask you… something I planed to ask you before this all happened.” Jack slid his hand down into one of the pockets of the robe, making Mimi squirm slightly. Pulling his hand free, he held out a small box and popped open the lid. “Milissa, you mean more to me than I can describe,
you’ve made me happier than I’ve been in years… would you do me the honour of becoming misuse White?”
Mimi stared at the ring. “You… want to marry me? Even after all the trouble I put your family through?”
“Yes, from what Seraph’s sister told me, you innocent of what happened that night. As far as I’m concerned, you were just another victim in the mad mans schemes.” Jack started to look a little awkward. “um…”
Mimi looked down at the ring and back up again. “If your willing to deal with all my problems… then yes, I do.”
Jacks face broke into a almost childlike grin as he pulled her into a fierce embrace.
She was his.
Thank God, she was his. 

Epilogue 03

19th of November
Hero’s Vidgil
Edge of paragon
Gir smiled as she felt the sun on her skin, she loved to coming to this place. It was a remote lookout during the Rikti war, but had now become a small park. Gir had taken to coming here when ever she wanted to think about something or just needed some time alone.
This time though, Patti had asked her to come here, apparently she had something she really needed to talk about that was very important. Gir had the horrid idea it had something to do with Jack’s proposal to Mimi, Patti had been less than happy to hear that.
She heard the sound of crunching gravel and turned to see Patti walking along, which was a bit odd, Gir was used to seeing her hover most of the time. Patti waved as she walked up to her and gave her a quick hug. “Thanks for coming Gir.” She said.
Gir returned the hug.” S’kay, so what did you want to talk about?”
Patti sat down on a nearby bench and took a deep breath. “I’m thinking of moving out of White manor.”
Gir looked at her questioningly. “Why? Is it cuz of Mimi?”

“Yes and no… it’s complicated Gir… I don’t think I can really explain it.”
“Is it cuz she looks kind of like me?”
Patti bit her lip. “A bit… that and what happened with Dib.”
“That wasn’t her fault Patti, she was as much a victim as me.”
“I know it’s just...” Patti trailed off as she tried to think how best to explain it. “It’s complicated, but it’s probably best if I move out. I got in a fight with Jack over it and… well I left before anything was said.”
“Then you can move in with me, you practically live there as it is.” Gir replied.
Patti chuckled and shook her head. “I bang heads with either your aunt or your dad at least once a month, so it probably wouldn’t work in the long run. I was thinking my own place.
“I’ve been thinking bout something like this for a while… but only now did it seam a good idea.”
Gir nodded and shuffled slightly closer to Patti. “So… where you thinking of?”
“I was thinking of something in Peragin and… I was also thinking that maybe… you could move in with me?”
Gir nodded. “Okay.”
Patti blinked, not expecting such a quick reply. “Are you sure? I don’t want you to feel like I’m pressuring you or anything like that.”
“Nah, it’s a good idea, Daddy probably wouldn’t mind getting me out of his hair.”
Patti let out a slight sigh. “Okay… um… there’s something else Gir.” Blushing Patti stood up and faced her. “Um…. We’ve been together for a while and… um.” Patti bit her lip and started to mumble.
“What did ya say?” Gir looked questioningly.
“Um… well…. Crap, this is harder than I thought.”
“What is?”
Patti slowly lowered herself to one knee. “Well, they say actions speak louder than words.” Patti reached into on of her pockets and pulled out a small box, carful opening it to reveal a diamond ring.
Gir’s jaw dropped and she looked at it, the sun reflecting off it. “Is… is that a?”
Patti nodded. “Will you?” she asked, looking hopeful.
“I’m not sure I can say yes though.”
Her face fell. “w-w-why?”
“Patti, I’m only seventeen.”
It was Patti's turn to have her jaw drop, blushing she started muttering an apology. “I’m sorry, should of though about that…”
Gir took Patti’s hand and carefully removed the ring. “But if you’re willing to wait till I’m old enough, yes.” She said as she slid the ring on.
Patti blinked, trying to get her train of thought back on track. “Yes?”
Gir grinned and nodded. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”
Patti smiled before pulling Gir into a fierce hug and whispering. “Thank you.”
*****
the end
I hope you all enjoyed this, please feel free to post any opinions or stuff like that.

well you have certainly managed to pull out of the dark/action that was the climax into the pure WAFF for the end.

I liked it.
-Terry
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"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy