"Everyone and every horse alright?" Jim asked as he examined the dragon. With it's stomach area blown to bloody ribbons, there was no doubt the thing was dead. Carefully, he moved away from the massive pool of blood, not wanting to be anywhere near the gore.
He was replied with a chorus of "Yes" and nods of heads. Taking a look at the corpse, he bent away and felt the scales. Even with the power armor, it felt hard. Hard as a rock. Another look would find bullets lodged into the flesh, unable to penetrate the deep, armor-like scales.
"You okay?" Slade asked Sanya as he took a look over the girl.
"I am fine... I think you want this back now." She said as she gave him the assault rifle. "Armin? Are you okay? You look sick."
"Armin?" Slade asked to himself. Turning around, he found the boy sitting on a rock and staring at the dragon. "Armin."
"Y..yes?" Armin asked nervously as he felt his fear lifting. The dragon was dead. Thank god.
You ever seen someone get punched so hard that their socks and shoes came off? That was exactly what happened when Slade swung his fist. The blow sent Armin sprawling a great distance, creating a large trench in the ground as he slid for several feet before resting at a stop against a building. His eyes doing barrel rolls in their sockets as his whole body went numb. A good thing when Slade began to kick him in the stomach.
"Worthless... coward.... Where the hell were you when a dragon was attacking?!" Slade shouted over the splats of him kicking in Armin's ribs. A single blow for every syllable delivered.
Armin gave no reply. Only cries of agony from the severe beating he received at the hands of Deathstroke. The only thing that stopped was the heavy hand that found itself on Slade's shoulder.
"Stop." Steve said firmly, his eyes as dangerous as the word.
"Or what?" Slade asked. He was given no answer, but he stopped nevertheless. Whether or not he wanted to was easily answered.
"Doctor... I think he's..."
"He's fine. It's just a few bruises that vill go away." Medic said. "Now let's see here... I fink here is my saw."
"What's he.... oh... oh my..." Sanya said as she looked away. Blood and gore flied in all directions as medic began to dissect the beast, removing bits and pieces of flesh, scales, organs, bones etc and placing them in jars which he seemed to have gotten straight out of nowhere.
"It's for mein research." Medic said almost a bit too cheerfully as he filled a few containers with blood, much to the disgust of everyone. "Now ven... if you excuse me... we'll..."
"By Celestia!" A pony cried. "What happened here?!"
A crowd had gathered. Great. Just great.
"Well. A dragon came and attacked this town. And we killed it." Slade replied as he wiped blood off his sword. "Are you all going to stand there gawking or are you going to help move this corpse? It weighs about 12 tons you know."
Gawking. Just gawking. And one comment. Well not really a comment but more like a deranged hiss.
"Handsssss......"
"A dragon attacked ponyville?" Princess Celestia asked as she stood with Luna whilst the guard delivered his message.
"It is your highnesses. A dragon had attacked ponyville. No pony was injured within the attack, but there has been a lot of property damage."
"The important thing was that no pony got hurt." Celestia said. But what about "nobody?"
"Well... you see... it was the um... the humans... they stopped the dragon." The guard said, almost as though he had read what had happened in the tabloids and not first-hand witnessed it.
"I see... and I presume this beast has been... well..."
"Murdered. Yes." The guard said. "And that concludes my report."
"Very well." Luna said as she stepped into deep thought. "Dismissed.
The guard gave a bow and left the throne room.
"What is it Luna?" Celestia asked her sister who seemed to be... troubled.
"Are you really sure these humans are up to it?" She asked.
"You have doubts of their methods?"
"Not their methods sister. For we know Feynaltdrog is far worse. But I have doubts that they can... well... truly overcome the dragon king."
"Where do your doubts stem from? The humans slew the dragon with little difficulty from what the reports say."
"That may be true. But this is a single dragon and the second battle. They won the battle, but can they win the war?" Luna asked as her horn glowed and her eyes flashed bright white.
"Speak your mind."
"I looked, and currently am still looking in their minds. These humans... well..."
"I can tell you right now. That boy is worthless." Slade spat out as he walked ahead of everyone else with Cap.
"Can you blame him? It was a goddamn dragon we were facing. What we supposed to do huh? Rush in there and die? It's not like he has fire-proof armor or some techno-shield thing."
"No. He could have at least struck when there was an opening. Do you know what he did the whole time? He hid behind a rock! What the hell?! A rock! Do you see what Medic was doing? Busy saving your ass. Do you know what Jim was doing? Throwing himself on top of a goddamn explosive so the thing wouldn't spit it right out back at us! Do you know what Sanya was doing? Covering for my act. Do you know what you and I were doing? Something useful! Do you know what he was doing?! NOTHING. nothing." Slade said as rage swam with his blood vessels.
"And how can you blame him? How is he supposed to fight a dragon? Do you think he has the strength of ten men? Does he look like someone who would survive a hit you can just shrug off like someone was throwing ping pong balls at you? Do you think he's wearing some kind of fire proof armor or has some kind of shield to save him from getting cooked alive?!"
"Last I checked. Sanya's shield wouldn't have saved her, but she still was willing to do what needed to be done."
"Let me guess. You told her to get it's attention."
"I did."
"And that's my problem right here." Cap said throwing up his hands. "You blame Armin for not doing anything but at the same time, you're willing to send people senselessly to their deaths if it so much as suited your needs? Right?"
"No. Because she was fine. Armin would have been too. And it's not like I asked him to do anything, it's that, that coward did nothing but hide the entire time."
"And what do you do? You ask a young girl to go take the heat for you while you go off wanting to be the hero?"
"Hero? I am not a hero. Neither are you especially when we are all doing it so we can get out this goddamn Saturday morning cartoon." Slade retorted. "I am only a loner that's out for himself. As of this moment, you are out for yourself. You're deluded Captain. You think these people really care about this place? They just want to go home. They have more important things to do then saving some world from a bedtime story."
"You really are out for yourself in this world aren't you? No. It was like that from the start wasn't it? You even told us all. You destroyed your own family. Your oldest son is dead because of you. Your two other children are permanently scarred because of you, and your wife left you because you wouldn't be man enough to do what it took to protect your own children. You consider yourself a soldier, Slade? You consider yourself a man? A real man would have took the heat by himself, he would have made the sacrifice. You? You're just a monster that feeds off of the sufferings of others. You kill for a living and you don't care who gets in your way or who it might be. They may not be the best of people, but you kill fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters and friends for nothing more so you can get a paycheck. What are you?"
"What am I? I am a project from a medical experiment they told me that make me immune to truth serum. They didn't tell me the other parts of course. Right now, I am a mercenary who's just picked up a contract to go kill a dragon. What are you captain? A hero? No. Of course not. You're just a glorified tool that the government uses to bludgeon it's opponents into submission. I could never stand being used like that. But you? You can. You are blind Captain. Blinded by your morals and codes of "honor"."
"Just like you are blinded. Blinded by yourself." Steve retorted. "You think Armin is a coward? When have you ever had to face your fears? You look down on him like he's worthless, like he's a ball and chain."
"Because he is. He's a weak boy that needs to grow up and be a man."
"Do you know what it's like to be weak, Slade? I was once like him. I had almost every medical condition that made it impossible for me to fight in a war. The experiment changed me into something like you. But I bet you were always the neighborhood bully who beat up the poor kid in the alleyway for his lunch money weren't you? And when they made you into something else, you continued being that bully you still are. You are not a man Slade. You are only a monster."
"They've been at it for a long time." Raynor commented as the sounds of arguing and raised voices reached them. "What do you think they're talking about?"
"I don't really fink I vant to know." Medic replied. "Herr Arlert, are you okay now?"
"Yes... thank you, doctor." Armin replied. The beating he had received from Slade... he felt like he had broken all his ribs in just a few blows. As a matter of fact, the first time he was hit by him, he had lost nearly all his upper teeth.
"Just whatever they're arguing about... maybe we should do something..." Sanya said as she walked up.
Raynor only shrugged for a moment before following her.