Chapter I - Sword and Shield

Completed chapters of the serial storyline are stored here after completion.
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TennyoCeres84
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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"I don't really know. It's possible, I guess. Those letters, from what I can ascertain, are details about her personal life while in this sunken city and after she escaped. I've only glanced through them, but it looks like there's detailed accounts of Void Weaver culture, anatomy, and so on," Aislinn explained.

***
"Heh, I wouldn't bite that potential ex's limbs off, but he would certainly know my anger," Crystal added with a wryness to her voice. "Bite marks might be possible. Though, I suppose that could apply to dating any supernatural."
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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"Present company excluded," added Archie, raising a hand. "I technically qualify as a supernatural being, as I am little more than a sustained soul riding this armature. I unfortunately do not have the dental fortitude to bite anyone, I'm afraid."

That made Gavin smirk. "What, so no steaks?
- Ask Crystal," replied the spy with a shrug. "I've always been more of a smoked salmon type. Her wolf has quite the pressure-per-square inch rating; I once shattered a molar over a stubborn bit of baguette bread. Opposites attract."

* * *

Three wiped his hands with a towel. "I'll take a look if it helps us, but I have to be honest and say I'm not looking forward to this. I wish I could just forget about these Squids. I know I can't, but..."

He shrugged, indicating powerlessness.
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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Crystal nodded. "On our first date, he ordered salmon carapaccio," she stated, chuckling. "I was the one who ordered a steak. The "opposites attract" fits more with our traits than on whether which one of us can bite down on a slab of Angus beef."

***

Aislinn frowned. "Honestly, we shouldn't forget about them. They've skulked in the shadows for untold millennia, and people continue to suffer for it. The attack on Hope was the beginning of something, I'm sure of it. Like it or not, we're the proverbial crowbar opening that crate holding who-knows-what; we have to fight them. However you or Dr. X catapulted the Chamberlain out of Gawain's tower, it saved our asses. There's no doubt about that. I hope that damn squid had to walk through Mab's wastelands for a while and freeze his tentacles off."
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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Gavin smiled. "Seems like it. One of you is a former jet-setter with hidden blades up the wazoo who can't handle baguette bread, the other one is a werewolf who gets to wear Transformer-type clothing and a badge. I'm a security consultant working for a former thief and my wife is a dance instructor. Guns and knives and badges and lanyards and grands jetés. Ooh-la-la."

Archie seemed amused. "Has Mrs. Drake attempted to soften you up, so to speak?
- You mean dance-wise?" asked Gavin, who chuckled. "Jeeze, no. Stick me on a dance floor and I start looking for the Twister pad I'm supposed to be standing on, I start looking like a deer stuck in incoming headlights... I just suck, overall. The men in this family have two left feet. It's a genetic thing, I think - ask Aidan."

* * *

"Somehow," admitted Aidan, "I doubt that happened. When I came to, I had no idea what had just happened, kind of like how I ended up staring at the mess in Najeeban. The difference is that the last time, things kind of stuck around in the back of my head. I think Doctor X wanted me to at least be consciously aware of this guy. I feel like the guy who proceeded with my, um, undesired enhancement, knew this Chamberlain guy. I think back to him, to his face, and adjectives start to pop up. Like X fed me data on him."

He shrugged. "Cunning. Cautious. Patient. Treacherous. Dangerous. Stuff like that. I just have the nagging certainty that he had a contingency plan, that he'd prepared for this eventuality or something like it, and that my pushing him off the tower didn't do more than just force him to default on whatever Plan B he's got going. He wanted to measure us, to see how ready and willing we were, even if we weren't trained. Now he knows. He'll take us seriously - and that's kind of bad for us, even if I get the sense that there's a roundabout sense of respect involved.

As for the whole love thing, Circe's warning? He doesn't fit the bill. I know that much. He's too committed to let anything emotional get in the way."
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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Crystal laughed throatily. "Perhaps we should have Sophia or one of the McConmara girls teach him a thing or two," she joked. "That should be interesting. Though, I get the sense that Aislinn will be his study partner when it comes to telekinesis."

***

Aislinn sighed thoughtfully. "From what I have read, the Chamberlain is the right hand man to the Augur, kind of like a Pope for Void Weavers. Perhaps it's him, and the Chamberlain's fooling him. Now, whoever he loved, who can say?"
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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Archie pouted in vague approval and added a shrug. "So long as my china and garden statuary are both spared from their telekinetic attempts, I see no inconvenience in letting Aislinn teach Aidan a thing or two. Although, I must say the boy has proven to be more collected than I first assumed he would. The official discharge papers presented him as being a detriment to the Army and a fair bit of an emotional loose cannon, though I now suspect this assessment was influenced by the recent nature of the trauma he'd endured."

That could've been a touchy thing to say in front of Aidan's dad, but Gavin didn't so much resent it as he seemed to lightly wince in agreement. "Yes, well - work's helped a lot. Things aren't perfect, but they're a lot better than in the first few months. He'd wake up covered in sweat and delay his sleeping hours to avoid haing nightmares; his abilities would fire off as soon as you'd test his temper... Nigel picked him up at the right time, and then you came along and gave him an even better sense of purpose. It was that or - God, I don't know - another round of us butting heads, trying to send him off to get some sort of professional training or maybe head back to college. I thought he needed to get away from the jarhead routine. I never thought he'd actually qualify as law enforcement material.
- Punishing him for following chartered waters would have been ill-advised, I believe. I've always remained a soldier of some persuasion and only ever played the part of the decaying social butterfly," explained Archie. "There is nothing shameful in espousing a career that feels natural, nevermind how violent it might be."

Drake senior didn't look entirely convinced. "I guess. He isn't Alpha Squad, at least. He's earned his place at the Hall."

The automaton couldn't follow this specific reference, however. He repeated it on an interrogatory tone, eyebrow raised. Gavin quickly redressed the situation. "Alpha Squad is some sort of single-team PMC made up of Transhumans, superhumans and supernaturals. Like your group, but with vested corporate interests and an eye for money. They sold half their roster to the USMC for the last few tours in the Middle East. Aidan would talk about them in some emails he wrote home," he explained, scoffing. "Six-figure know-it-alls with a collective ego the size of Mount Rushmore, all at various stages of the kind of God complex you develop if you lose your mortality and stop caring about the rest of us. They're responsible for a slew of incidents during the larger stages of the last campaign in Afghanistan, but some of their legal team is ex-Blackwater. They know how to tango with a Federal commission, and it frustrates most of the post-SuReCa supes I've worked with. They've had all of the luck Aidan never had in that place, and half of their assignments were Black Ops."

Holden again looked to have been somewhat sobered by that declaration. "I see," he merely added, to the tone of someone who was adding items to some sort of mental check list.

* * *

Tanner shook his head. "It must have been someone of great import, to push this fellow into such dire straits. Whatever could have driven such a hateful race out of the depths and into our world must have been notable."

Three could only smirk at that. "If love's involved, I'd say that's reason enough. Regular people can walk for miles or sacrifice their lives for the sake of someone they love. Who knows what the Void Weaver take on Romeo and Juliet involves?"
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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Crystal frowned sharply. "Since the last decade, the military complex is all about its war toys. I remember when they offered the HPD exo-suits and tanks to help keep the peace. We're the police, not some city-based militia meant to make the citizens feel like they're in a war zone. There's a fine line between protection and oppression. I've seen a few officers with merely a pistol and badge let it go to their heads; the same thing's happened with these blowhards in the Alpha Squad," she observed.

***

"That's great and all, but Romeo needs to wake up before he brings all existence down around him," Aislinn responded flatly. "I mean, if Juliet is around somewhere, she likely isn't happy about what he's involved in; hopefully, Juliet can wake him up."
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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Gavin looked a bit resigned, if not somewhat saddened; but there was also the sense that like his son, he was trying to make the most out of an unenviable situation.

"I'm a security consultant," he explained. "I've also done time in the USMC, but I'd always wanted to work on the local level. Going corporate seems like it might contradict that, but I've made it clear that I'd work for Griffin as long as they were a local gig. I'm in something of a self-made job, where I work with the HPD's Downtown precincts pretty often and have a few contact numbers in the technical divisions, but I felt obligated to add some understanding of the criminal sphere to my job, considering Nigel's background. I took up Criminology and Psychology as soon as I was discharged. I asked some of the local SWAT teams or the DEA contacts to take me on ride-alongs. Anything to get the full picture.

If anything, it's taught me to focus on the good people. I remember thinking in black and white, as a kid. Anyone associated with Winters or Sarvin or Alphonse Biggs, back then, was an asshole. Barney Marsh was a dick and John Smith wasn't worth the time of day. It's still true in some cases, but I managed to see how trapped some of these people are. A lot of them do what they can with what they have, and they have no choice but to learn to sleep easy with some of the things they do. As soon as I came back from my tour of duty, I couldn't judge people in the ways I used to. For some it's a power trip, and it's an eye-opener for others."

He shrugged lightly. "The me from twenty years ago would've thought of my son working with a spy to be fairly disgraceful. I taught Aidan to be honest and upfront, and covert ops don't exactly mesh well with that. Some of Rasputin's former agents on US soil were pathological liars, mentally conditioned to reject the truth of their actions no matter what. I figured, with all those lies, all those political ploys and those State-mandated assassinations, that you'd be one of them."

Archie only replied with a knowing nod. There was a lot to that simple gesture. He understood Gavin's past reticence and accepted it. He'd done many things that had been necessary for America's early twentieth century to unfold without any hindrances, things that decent people would have considered horrendous.

"The older you get, I guess, the more you put things in perspective. It's just sad to end up having to beat against people who haven't reached that stage yet, who resent your son because he couldn't abide by protocol or operational directives in a situation where nothing standard could've been done. We've all received word from some surviving Vietnam or Iraq War veterans who supported us, but it doesn't change the fact that a lot of people still call for a more gun-ho approach to justice."

There was a pause, during which Archie seemed to scrutinize Gavin's gaze, eyes slightly narrowed. "Might I ask what I now represent, at least to your eyes?"

The middle-aged human seemed unsure. "A lot of things, honestly. You're a nice guy and a necessary evil; you're a diplomat by trade and you kill people by profession; you're from a time where everyone played their cards close to their chest, and you're trained to snoop around in people's lives. I have to live with the notion that you could be any of the Clanks I'll run into on the street, from now on, but that you'll still show up as-is for the sake of honesty. You're a one-percenter who has the kind of job a member of the 99% with PTSD issues and an Army backlog might have. Some people might develop respect for you, others react in disgust. You can't blend into any specific social sphere for too long, either; you being out of touch with the current times will always shine through a little. You're probably more damaged than you let show, but that composure also does you credit. You're complex, the same way I now know the Biggs cartel is, or Sarvin's fiefdom.

You fit with the way the world is, I guess," he said. "The way a lot of these abusers in the Army and the trigger-happy types in the force could never understand. In some ways, you're the best boss my son could've had."

Archie seemed to be reassured by Gavin's words, even if he reacted as if he'd been a little mollified by them, smiling a bit and giving a gracious nod as the human finished. "You are quite the insightful parent, mister Drake," he complimented. "You do me too much honor. I believe I may say you would be the parent the lad deserves."

Still, Drake senior seemed a bit surprised. To that, Archie replied with a smirk. "How often does a peacekeeper benefit of someone's undiluted insight, concerning their own actions? Some people see Crystal as a mangy dog with a badge, others see a human afflicted with some terrible disease. Some see an ordinary member of the force, others see someone would be deserving of certain special statuses. The truth of her being is somewhere near and far to all proposed descriptors."

He smiled at Lowell as he finished.

"Perspective is the best gift anyone could give someone like myself, Crystal, or your son."

* * *

"Romeo wasn't exactly dumb, in the way. Just blind with love and regret," reminded Three. "As powerful as these things seem to be, I think our main guy had a lot of time to try and think things through - to give himself some lucidity. The thing is, I'm not concerned about Romeo, exactly. If we keep the Shakespeare analogies going, then this Chamberlain guy would be our Tybalt."

He took a sip from his beer and gave Aislinn a look that was both fairly lucid, but still just a little impish around the edges. "Tybalt dies at the end, and the Goth crowd would say the story ends well. Romeo and Juliet end up together again - technically. If we need to get our hands dirty with this, then Romeo needs a shot of confidence, and Juliet needs weapons of her own."

He pursed his lips together. "Still, we're technically Capulets based on the look of things, and the Squiddies are Montagues... We're going to have a tough time pulling Romeo out of his kill-all-the-surface-things mentality, if the Chamberlain's the one actually pulling the strings."
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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"Indeed it is," Crystal agreed. "Billions of different perspectives for billions of people. The same mentality can be extended toward mundanes as well."

***

"Well, to do that, we have to figure out who Romeo and Juliet are," Aislinn reminded. "They're faceless and nameless people as of now."
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Re: Chapter I - Sword and Shield

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"We'll figure that out in due time. By the look of things, we won't be able to focus exclusively on any single adversary's overarching plans."

Tanner seemed to agree. "After all, the Golden Age's veterans were rarely called to devote months of their lives to the pursuit of tracking any one, single villain. The city always found ways to toss more immediate concerns in their direction. The trick is to return to the proverbial back-burner when things turn placid, to take a page from the city's common investigative force.
- To do that," added Drake, "we have to start laying down some groundwork. That, in turn, is going to take place tonight."

Dawn Drake's voice rang out from inside. "Aidan, honey - I think Mister Kuhn's ready!
- Yeah, mom!" replied Aidan, who hurriedly closed the barbecue's burners, cleared the grill and closed the lid. "Be right there!"

Scoffing, he gave Aislinn an amused glance. "Here I was thinking dragons ate at reasonable hours...
- Well, we are all fairly aged, to be honest," replied Cody. "It is the province of us elderly folk to prefer to have our dinners before the evening, unfortunately for you young decorated rascals.
- Yeah, but five-thirty?"

Tanner laughed at this. "Aldergard is usually awake by four in the morning, Aidan. I take it you must be pried out of bed with a pair of forceps by six-thirty..."

* * *

Archie, in the meantime, was used to the more British schedule of having some sort of luncheon by the current hour, usually tea and a few biscuits. His ghostly innards were starting to churn, but he wasn't sufficiently indisposed to start making suggestions concerning dinner. Aldergard, however, didn't need much to make his discomfort obvious: he'd hogged one of the plates of canapés and tended to reply to Sarah's chipper questions in monosyllabic grunts. His one eye looked as though it were scanning the residence and the neighbourhood outside for any wayward sheep to slaughter, while the hand that wasn't resting on his cane's hilt was occasionally pressed to his stomach. It only took the sight of Aidan with a plate of steaks for the Wyrm to say something on a relieved tone in some old Slavic dialect and to hurriedly take a seat at the table.

"Why do I feel like I just made a new best friend?" commented Aidan as he set down the plate of steaks in the table's center. He'd barely let go of the plate that Kuhn had already stabbed at one of the slabs of meat and was transferring it to his plate, a slightly craven glint shining in his eye.

"Feed a Wyrm, friend Aidan," replied Aldergard, "and he will follow you into battle. You must keep feeding the Wyrm, however, lest he eat you."

Archie and Cordatus seemed to catch onto the fact that this was one of the Slavic dragon's dry attempts at humor, which elicited a few polite chuckles out of them as they sat down. Aidan, ever the newcomer, looked fairly unsure...
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