//------------------------------//
// CH 28: Internet Free America 
// Story: Bridging Ages, Bridging Worlds 
// by BlueDWarrior 
//------------------------------//


=== BABW: A New Conflict ===


=== Chapter 28: Internet Free America ===





[ September 29, 2081 – Los Angeles, USA ]
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        “That is the kind of thing I mean. The S.P.H. you think would have been doing this stuff already. I mean they are supposed to be about the ‘preservation of humanity’, right? Hah, all I seem them ever do is just shout the same lines all those Dome-aligned politicians shout. Ain’t nothin’ but a bunch of patsies for them, I bet. SO where does that leave us? Hell, if a bunch of aliens want to actually try and make this whole thing work, then to hell with it, I say let them. Anyway, that’s the end of this viewer report, RadStriker999 singing out,” the young-looking African-American man said as he closed out his report, which closed the reporting for Alternate’s HEA newscast.

“Thank you very much Mr. RadStriker999, and that concludes our reporting for the evening cast, and now we will close the telecast with the traditional brief editorial,” the blue-dressed, iridescent-winged cyber-fairy started. “Over the last two weeks since this broadcast started, we have been deluged with messages and mail regarding what exactly our intent are? Are we yet another militia trying to wrest control of the government back from Society? Are we some kind of fringe group piggybacking on the old name of the initiators of the Conversion Initiative?”

“No, we are the original group, but both our makeup and our goals have expanded. It is our fervent wish to lead those who, or join in common cause with, anyone willing to help build this world into one that thrives for all, and not simply one that thrives for those who happen to be holding the reins at any given time. In closing, while on the point of ‘common cause’, I would like to make special recognition of the Los Angeles Free Militia, who are doing yeoman’s work wresting control of the Los Angeles megalopolis from Society influence. We should hope that in the near future, we can assist them in ensuring the return of a normal government, and embarking on the renewal of this planet, so it may go from brown to the green and blue jewel it was always meant to be. Thank you, and until next time, this is your lovely anchor signing off.”

The web-stream went to a test pattern and easy listening until the next broadcast in a few hours for the middle-late evening for the American East Coast.


        The leader of said freelance resistance fighting force sat on a sofa, contemplating what may come due to the recognition as the easy listening music wafted through the air of the room she was in.

“I honestly appreciate what Celestia’s little cadre have done in these last couple of weeks. It’s one thing to be taking a few guns and engaging in guerrilla war against a similarly disjointed force. It’s another thing to have some wealthy backing. Which is how I assume the Society manages to always find safe haven in the Domes,” Amanda thought aloud, as she leaned back onto the couch, now in a full lounge.

Enrique was with her, as were a couple of subordinates - one cleaning his disarmed rifle, the other checking media feeds for any other instance of SPH incursion into the slums of the sprawling megalopolis they all called home.

Said Latin American lieutenant looked around, as he mentally scanned some of his private contacts, a few messages having popped up wondering if had any in-depth knowledge of the Free Militia or the now resurfaced HEA, to which he continually denied. He took a deep breath and responded to his leader. “Frankly, I was afraid they thought were weren’t doing as much as the Chicagoland militias. It seems like we have a bit of a friendly rivalry brewing at who can get their local SPH contingent to concede first.”

“I know they have better arms than us on balance, which I am still wondering about how they procured them. But we have more magi, thanks in no small part to myself…” Amanda responded in kind, her trademark confidence causing Enrique to chuckle.

“Well, Madame Magic, don’t let that head get too swelled. We still don’t know what kind of tech or spellcraft the SPH might be building up in the Domes. We need to save the self-aggrandizement until the job is totally done.”

“Fine fine, no gloating until they’re turning tail even from the Hollywood Domes,” Amanda responded in a sing-songy voice.

Her happy tone quickly subsided, as Enrique could tell that something was troubling her right under the surface.

Does she already know who is running this outfit, and by extension, know who is the Pony that is the person that is running this outfit? Damn, I don’t know enough about how the HEA operates to say that for sure. Then again, Celestia didn’t know about the experiments I was running until the last minute when she busted in with the Campus and City Police. So I know she’s not omniscient… but just what is the extent of her knowledge. In any case, so long as I keep everything above board I should avoid attracting too much undue attention from her or her ‘knights’ in half-shining armor… Sunset Shimmer thought, as she did her level best to not make ‘Amanda’ look overly lost in thought.

Something has Amanda’s brain tied up in knots, but I’m no psychic and I’m not mage so I can’t say what. Then again, this is her practically all the time she’s not talking, so I guess I shouldn’t be too worried. Just so long as it doesn’t affect her running this outfit, at least… Enrique thought, as he watched the pall lift from Amanda’s face, drifting back to her more or less neutral expression.

“In any case, Miss Amanda,” one of the subordinates started, as he showed some charts on a pad to both her and Enrique. “We’ve been running intel and tapping into some of the muni-survs in Hollywood. The SPH force is now at about 30% of its apparent peak in early July. Nowhere near enough casualties were reported on their part to account for this discrepancy, so I figure they are suffering desertions.”

“They probably thought it’d be an easy operation to just quiet down the lot of us with a show of overwhelming force. Shows you how much they know,” Amanda said in a confident, almost snide tone. Enrique smiled as he was now sure his commanding pseudo-officer was back in gear. “But still, we have to make sure to keep every set of eyes and camera lenses we can on them. Those thauma-tanks are still a problem, and I doubt they are just going to stop there…”

Everyone nodded, not sure of what the Society might have been cooking up, figuring it had to have been another piece of something to maintain, or even expand whatever power they might have.


[ September 30, 2081 – Manhattan, New York City, USA ]
======================================================


        “This entire situation is truly starting to grate on me, Mr. Yanovich…” Peter Vaughn said, as he looked on at the late-middle-aged man of partial Czech descent trying to explain why, after over three months, they still were having trouble trying to get intelligence on all of the myriad resistance organizations.

“I truly apologize, Leader-One, but whoever was last in the Analysis Room severely damaged our entire repository of active intel and our systems for parsing and analysis. We are having to work with outdated information and machines, and these systems are proving unable to cope with the volume of raw data we are feeding them,” Yanovich responded, trying to get the layman to understand the situation – as his outfit was trying to navigate a full blown squall at sea using in a rubber dinghy with wooden oars.

“The more time you all take, the more these… Loyalists gain legitimacy in the eyes of the public. The more legitimacy they gain, the harder it becomes for us to hold control without taking more… extreme measures. I know you are a warm and caring man, and would not want to see us having to engage in more… oblique measures of riot and insurgency suppression,” Peter asked of the man on the other side of the videophone-line.

“I am the wrong man to ask when it comes to sympathy for the proletariat…” Yanovich snapped.

“True, but I may need every man I can get, should worse comes to worse,” Peter replied, knowing full well that Yanovich had little regard for anything but his own well-being.

“I… I understand sir. But at the same time I am attempting to work with inferior tools here. Whatever decimated our networks three months ago is possibly still hampering the electronic reconstruction. And I have yet to receive new equipment to replace the old equipment we have managed to scrounge up out of storage,” Yanovich griped, his frustration becoming evident, much to the bemusement of the Society leader.

“If it is personnel and equipment you need, it can be furnished. But, until we in Leadership start to see more results, I may have to dock your pay… slightly…” Peter replied, the smirk still prominent on his face.

“Yes sir. I understand your capital is valuable, and you would not want to… throw it after bad,” Yanovich replied, grousing internally at yet another financial setback.

At this rate, I will have to move into a second rate condo in the Arlington Domes… I got to find something to bring to him he can use so I can make my rent… the CIA head thought as the idea of being ‘pressed’ onto the front lines of this conflict gave him pause, as did his ambitions for improving his station being delayed in any appreciable way.



==[ Back at Safe Haven … ]==


        “And this is where you’ve been all this time…” Red Blaze said, as she stepped through the threshold of one of the environmental sub-space rooms, which was fashioned like a general cloudscape, not unlike the ones that littered the skies of Equus, especially over Equestria proper.

“You know, even though I know non-Pegasi can walk and lay out on these clouds… it still makes me nervous where you’re in here with me like this,” Golden Storm said, as he was laid out on his back staring at the false but sunny sky, and Red Blaze laid out next to him, her head along-side his.

“I can see what you mean, even though I know I can’t fall, it still feels like I might. Like I’m walking over one of those glass-bottomed bridges that are all over the bigger metropolises,” Red Blaze thought aloud, as she thought of the bridges that connected some of the non-residential buildings over the streets in the various Outsider slums, especially super-dense ones like around Boston and New York City.

“You can put as much steel and nanofiber reinforcement on those things as you want to, but you will still find people who will outright refuse to walk on those things. They’d rather fight foot and street-car traffic for half an hour over taking that ostensibly ten minute walk above ground level. But I doubt you wanted to talk to me about city life we mostly left behind,” Storm replied, as he felt his marefriend’s head move down, now resting along his upper chest and shoulder

“Nah, this is just… something I wish we had more of while we were over here. I mean all of Safe Haven is nothing but hustle and bustle, to and fro, comings and goings. Then again that’s why this hall was created. I mean it’s not like most of us can just go outside whenever we want,” Red Blaze grumbled, as she was feeling like it was time to head back to Equestria, the cabin fever starting to get to her again.

“I see. Yeah everything’s been a scramble: working on the new armor, working on the new potions, working on making sure our three Cyber-faries can keep our newscast going. By the by, Miss Pamela has some eye for character design, wouldn’t surprise me if she was a 3d character modeler in a past-life,” Storm replied, as his thoughts drifted elsewhere.

“Yes, you just couldn’t help heaping praise upon Shift for her reporters get-up…” Blaze said with some measure of terseness, thumping her coltfriend’s chest with one of her front-hooves a bit.

“She looked a bit like a red-headed you back in the day, and I couldn’t help myself…” Storm replied in an apologetic tone.

“Fine, but you’re going to help me pick out something when we return Equestria side; I feel like indulging myself with Rarity’s works,” Blaze politely requested, looking back and up (slightly) into the gold-yellow Pegasus’s eyes.

“Alright alright, but you know how bored I get with clothes shopping. And then Rarity does almost all ladies designs on top of it…” Storm complained, as he could already see himself standing half asleep while Blaze and Rarity talked shop in the Boutique’s storefront.

“And you, good sir, will just have to put up with it. But trust me, I’ll make it worth your while later~” Blaze concluded, with a bit of a song to her voice, as he rubbed her head along Storm’s chest.


They laid like that for a couple minutes more, before a different train of thought took off from their shared mental station.

“You know what this place reminds me of?” Blaze thought aloud, as the false sun in the sky continued to drift, mimicking Earth’s actual Sun’s position - overhead on the North American West Coast anyway.

“Hrm?” Storm replied, truly curious of what was percolating in the head of his red-orange-mopped marefriend.

“This place is like a space station straight from fiction… except it’s obviously not…” Blaze thought some more, as she continued to mentally drift like the false sun was.

“I can see that. Aside from rule about going outside, which exists for very good reason unless you are well-armored or in a group, there are other ways this place is kinda like a sci-fi spaceship,” Storm thought, as his track began to align with the red Unicorn’s.

“Yeah, the machines that can produce almost anything from a little raw material, like… near perfect duplication. Rooms that can simulate environments quite precisely and yet not completely suck you in either. And then there aliens mingling, obviously. I mean, aside from high fantasy, where else would talking horses, dragons, gryphons, and humans all be in the same place?” Blaze continued to muse.

“I dunno, maybe some urban fantasy… not that much strict high fantasy that’s totally new and original being produced, even non-professionally, these days…” Storm figured, thinking about all of the various online communities and role-playing games he was into before he was in the Air Force full-time.

“Though it’s kinda hard to be totally original, especially now that it’s so easy to record even the most obscure of works,” Blaze wondered.

“True, I mean think of Blankely’s Storms of Mana series, everyone thinks it’s pretty much A Song of Fire and Ice for the 2040s,” Storm thought.

“It does feel that way though, a little more spellcraft-laden than Fire and Ice, but the premise is still rather similar. On the other hoof, you couldn’t call something that’s had two television series and seven movies obscure can you?” Blaze argued, as the two of them continued lounging on the false clouds.

“Point taken, though I think we’re talking more about the ‘accidental lifting of premises’ than the ‘obscure works’ part,” Storm conceded partially.

“Fine. Anyway, you think we should make ourselves available for more forward missions on the outside? I mean, I think it’d be valuable if the world knew that the Converts didn’t just turn tail and run to Equestria because they couldn’t make it here, depending on how we’re defining ‘making it’,” Blaze asked, genuinely probing for the opinion of her coltfriend.

“It couldn’t hurt anyway. For all we know, the Princesses are just waiting for us to offer to volunteer before sending us somewhere,” Storm figured.

“Yeah, perhaps. Also, while some of the people we’re opposing might think nothing of never setting foot outside of their Domes, I’m not particularly fond of the idea of being restricted to this ‘box’ while here on Earth,” Blaze concluded.

“You and me both, baby. You and me both,” Storm added.


[ October 01, 2081 – Orlando-New Miami Metro Area, USA ]
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        “So you’re saying this used to be two really big cities, and then it was merged into one big super-city?” One of the Pony volunteers of the H.E.A. asked, as he and about ten or so HEA volunteers were buzzing around the utility service area to one of the larger municipal public housing ‘projects’ that were scattered all throughout the vast urbanized area that held almost all of South Florida’s population[1].

“Yeah back in my grandpa’s time. The seas got too high for the walls they were building at the time so they started on the New Miami end of the city. Eventually, most people got the hint and old Miami eventually bled completely into New Miami. You got a few stragglers in the dry patches back in the old metro but you always have that,” one of the volunteers from the local Loyalist resistance militia, the Sunshine Volunteer Force.

“In any case, we could be all day and night trying to figure out the why and who done it regarding the sea level rise. We just need to do what we can to get people to some level of comfort and ability to do stuff, then we can figure out what about the Earth we can actually repair,” one of the Human HEA volunteers mused, are and a couple of other Humans and one of the two Dragons were moving a generator in place to replace one that had been damaged by some mysterious action.

“I’d like to know who would be so brazen as to ruin a necessary piece of equipment like this? You’d think the Black Shield would want to keep the public as quiet and docile as possible during this time of persistent turmoil,” the Dragon asked, as he checked the alignment of the new generator’s base to the hookup area where the old generator was still sitting.

“Could have just been an accident, or just unaffiliated vandals; though I don’t put it past the Society to pull some bull like this,” one of the Sunshine volunteers responded, as they were keeping a perimeter to keep gawkers far enough away. “Hey look, everyone if you want to ask questions of the Alliance volunteers, they have that red fairy doing interviews at that tent over there…”

        About 50 or so yards away, next to one of the larger parking lots outside the complex, there was a large tent set up. The tent was white and blue, and fringed in black, green, and red: the recognizable colors of the HEA. Inside, the other half of the volunteer contingent, one of each species, were all fielding questions from the rather sizable, and still growing, crowd. Shift, the eldest of the cyber-fairies, was wearing her bright red reporter’s shirt as she made herself de-facto MC of the event.

“That’s cool, I’ve never seen a projector make a virtual being look so real outside of a studio…” one of the smaller kids wondered aloud, as he looked her and the assorted aliens in silent awe.

“A small benefit of being around a bunch of mages. Don’t have to spend and arm and a leg to properly project me into real-space, though…” Shift started, as she waved an arm through the kid, only to pass through him as the projection did not show through any solid material, living or non. “… as you can see, it’s not a tactile projection. That’s still a ways away~”

“In any case, I have to thank all of you for keeping your questions civil. I know that us being here might be aggravating either you all personally, or drawing the attention of SPH aligned forces, but we all felt that it was necessary to begin doing public outreach again. It’s not going to do us any good in truly rebuilding this world is we’re holed up just as much as the Domers are,” the human volunteer stated aloud for the crowd through the microphone, for the benefits of those not under or near the Ice-Magic cooled tent.

After a few more moments, another hand went up in the rather sizeable assembled crowd, and one of the other human volunteers walked up with a microphone to the attendee so everyone could hear the question being asked. “What made you all come back, anyway? I thought you would have just left us to our own devices after what happened in June and July…”

All of the HEA volunteers taking questions thought for a few moments as they wondered themselves why exactly they found themselves back on Earth so relatively soon after the miserable feeling of retreat from early July. The human who sat next to where the projection of Shift was standing stood up himself to respond. “Like I said, we were holed up, wondering that very question. Should we come back? If we do, how do we come back? We clearly misestimated how far a certain cadre would go to keep control.” 

The reference to the SPH got a few boos out of the crowd, and said human that was speaking paused a few moments for it do die down. “Yeah, you can count us amongst the many who think the SPH are just a front for the Domers who were angry at how nice the governments were playing with the Ponies and were doing other things to annoy them. In fact, the more we all thought about it, the more we thought ‘Why shouldn’t we be out there doing what we can to help out?’ So here we are again, with some extra help.”

The crowd murmured as it talked amongst themselves, before another resident of the complex rose her hand to ask a question. “Um, this is for the Dragon, the Gryphon, or the Zebra: what was it about what the Ponies told you that made you all want to come over here to Earth?”

The three addressed volunteers huddled together in order to formulate a response, and the Dragon took the microphone to respond for himself and the Gryphon and Zebra with him. “Truth be told, it took quite a little while to sell us on just the idea of even coming here, let alone actually participating in everything the HEA was. A part of it is avoiding the appearance of coming at the behest of the Equestrian Princesses, species and national pride and all that noise. Another part of it was not understanding really what Earth was, what it was we were being asked to do, or even if anything going on here was germane to us. After a month on this side though, I can honestly say for myself, and I think I can speak for my Gryphon and Zebra partners, that we were glad we did come. I can see why the Ponies go out of their way to help, even when it seems like they are being a bother or a nuisance – seeing someone’s eyes light up when we cook them a hot meal with naturally-grown food, instead of the synthetics or cloned tissue you all use, or hooking up machines like the electrical generators a few dozen yards away from here, makes me feel good. It’s a real good feeling that’s not really replicated in anything else.”

The Gryphon took the mic for an addendum. “Our people call the Ponies’ attitude towards others when they get in that ‘I’m helping you, no matter what’ mode Heldenkomplex, or just simply ‘hero complex’. Though I have to agree a bit with my Dragon teammate after being here and having some general interaction, I can see why the Ponies want so badly to keep engaging with you all. I can’t lie – I’m feeling the same pull to be out here and doing things to.”


        The back and forth between the steadily growing assembled crowd of residents and non-active members of the HEA volunteer group continued on for a while longer, deep into the late afternoon. In fact, it was going on so long, a local unwanted group decided it was long past time to go and break up this little affair.

“Hey, Thompson, we got a problem,” one of the Sunshine volunteers said, as he walked up to the squad leader for the HEA.

“What’s going on?” Thompson replied, his thirty year old face looking rather young, not putting him a day over twenty-five at first blush.

“SPH Armored Van on the way, apparently they’ve had about enough of the both of us doing this community service and building up a ton of good PR for it,” the SVF member said, as he showed them a real-time track of the armored van moving down the streets of the New Miami side of the metro area, about a couple of minutes away from the residential complex.

“So they get mad at us for doing their job for them? I really don’t understand them, but that’s renegades for you…” the HEA squad leader said as he thought for a few moments. “If you can spare us a few men, I want to set up a little show of presence at the gate they are most likely to try and enter from. Keep the heavily armed members in back, I want to avoid anything resembling a firefight where there are so many other potentially unarmed residents.”

“Sure thing, give me a couple of seconds to round up a half dozen,” the SVF member responded.

A few minutes later, a half dozen men wearing the sunrise logo of the Sunshine Volunteer Force, and a HEA contingent of three humans, two Gryphons, and a Dragon were all standing near the gate where the black, armored van approached.

As said black armored van pulled up, a crowd began to gather, though staying some distance back, not sure if the face-to-face would devolve into a fight or not.

A half dozen light to moderately armored SPH members ducked out of the van, forming a half circle near the line of SVF and HEA members, as the crowd looked on the scene with baited breath.

As the tension continued to rise amongst the gathered crowd, the black-and-red-fringed-beret wearing SPH in the front of the arc took up a megaphone to speak to both the assembled crowd and the assembled small force gathered to counter their own. “We are an authorized sweeper crew from the Society of the Preservation of Humanity. We have received report of Aliens being sighted in this residential zone, though I guess the fact I’m looking at three of them right in my face says these reports are right.”

Thompson turned on the inlaid microphone of his collar, not wearing a full suit of armor though still protected against anything except heavy arms or headshots, in order to respond. “Obviously yes we do have Aliens here in the residential complex, though I fail to see what you all are going to do about that. We’re still in the middle of repairing the electrical generators that keep this place livable for all of the people who you all don’t let in the Domes of your backers.”

“What do you mean the Domes of our backers?” the beret wearing supposed-leader of the SPH contingent asked, as the other goggle wearing men and women looked around a tad confused. “We are nothing more than concerned citizens working to repel the alien threat!”

“Is that why the only time you all are out in public whenever you think the Ponies appeared, or wherever the SPH or the resistance militias are now?!” one of the onlookers shouted, her tone clearly incensed at the sheer level of denial dripping from the black-beret wearing Society member.

“Honest! We want nothing more than to show them and the others like them the door so we can work toward building a better tomorrow for all!” the black beret wearing man shouted in response, the crowd now starting to become quite animated behind the SVF and HEA members standing by the gate.

“All you do is try and censor the news!” one man shouted.

“You don’t even try and help us, you just let vandals strip whatever we got left bare!” another woman shouted.

“It’s gotten so bad my own son joined the Sunshine Volunteers to fight you all! Is that what you want, humans fighting amongst themselves?!” another man shouted.


        The clamor and rancor in the crowd was starting to bubble and percolate even higher, which caught the eyes and ears of the SPH squad leader, as he waved to the van. From the van, marched three more soldiers, all clad in the trademark ‘riot control’ gear, chemical bazookas at their side ready to fire.

“We are the legitimate government of this city, this state, this country, and this world. We are now ordering you to disperse, and for the members of the Sunshine Volunteer Force and the Human-Equus Alliance to either vacate the premises, or surrender quietly,” the beret-wearing man stated firmly, as he tried to imply to the rest of the SPH crew with him that he was in firm control of the situation.

“Like hell you are the legit anything, fucking Black Shield need to go home to whatever Dome they crawled out of!” one of the crowd shouted, as the percolating emotions of said crowd were starting to reach a boil.

If this man is smart, he’ll back off and let things simmer down… Thompson thought to himself, having served a few months on riot control in the Milwaukee Police Department before moving to Orlando-Miami.

Not being a psychic, or very experienced at crowd psychology, the beret-wearing member did just about the exact opposite of what Thompson was thinking. “Either you all disperse immediately or we are filling this area with enough tear gas to make an elephant bawl!”

One of the armored SPH soldiers readied his launcher, as he pointed it at the crowd. Though he didn’t fire immediately… instead he thought for a few seconds…

Two birds… or rather… two lizards with one stone…

As he lowered the launcher from a lob angle to a direct-fire angle, and pointed it straight at the Dragon in the crowd.

The Dragon didn’t realize it in the moment, but felt a deep sense of foreboding, as he looked at the metal tube, and, at least a quickly as could be expected of someone with limited first-hand experience with the matter, attempted to brace himself for the shell.

“What the Hell?” Thompson shouted as he saw the tear-gas canister fly out of the bazooka-like device with a muffled *prfph*.

“MUZ YWOK [Air Net]!” the Dragon shouted, as what looked like a shimmering ball of pale blue formed in his hands as he put them right in his chest where he thought the shell would hit him.

And hit him it did, and knocked him back a good foot or two, causing him to crash to the ground in a heap.

“What in the fuck are you trying to do, start a war!?” a man in the crowd shouted, as everyone began to shout obscenities and throw trash and debris at the black-clad members of the SPH.

“I told you to quash this budding riot, not incite it further!” the beret-wearing squad leader shouted at the man who fired the gas shell.

“I tried to! And I thought I could take that Dragon out at the same time!” the man who fired the shot shouted back. The other two armor-clad SPH squad members with their rifles drawn in order to more forcefully disperse the increasingly rowdy crowd.


“SHUT UP!” they heard a deep voice bellow, as the crowd and the arguing SPH squad fell silent.

The dragon that had just been knocked down stood up, gingerly with the help of the other Dragon that had rushed to his aid, but seemingly none the worse for wear than a loss of breath.

“You apparently underestimated me so let me just make it PERFECTLY clear, in a language you can understand. I am about THREE ticks away from LITERALLY tearing the lot of you from limb to limb! The ONLY reason why I DON’T is because there are children watching and I have superiors I have to answer to. So I would HIGHLY suggest all nine of you get back into your black, wheeled tin-can and LEAVE!” the Dragon shouted, sapphire-colored flame wafting from his exposed scales and flaring out of his mouth and nostrils.

The beret-wearing squad leader took a few moments to consider, looking as the Dragon with the apparent blue fire was getting angrier every second he was seeing something in black with a white shield logo on it. He then rendered his decision.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we will make a strategic withdrawal to assess the situation; but mark my word, this incident will be reported up the chain of command, and you can expect us to be back to redress this transgression against us!” he stated clearly and firmly as he possibly could, which only served to visibly irk the Dragon with the building rage more and more.

The nine men and women in black slowly backed into the van and pulled out, trying as desperately as they could to not appear to be running scared from the rage-filled Dragon – and mostly failing at it. Eventually the hum of the engine kicked into full, as the van pulled out at a quick clip, driving back to wherever it was headquartered.


        “Sir, you comported yourself with grace and dignity over something that I am sure you took as a grave insult,” Thompson said to the Dragon who had caught the shell, which was still being held in the distorted-colored ball of gas that formed the ‘Air Net’.

“I know how I sounded, like a caged animal that was barking mad and ready to tear into something, but that is legitimately how I felt in the moment. He could have seriously hurt, possibly killed someone firing that shell down and into the crowd like that. Even fighting it up and over is dangerous from what I saw in our training videos. And we need to protect these people from the SPH, at the very least while we are actively trying to render them aid,” the Dragon responded, as he sat on a bench near the media tent where Shift was wondering where everyone had gone so quickly.

“It sounds like there was quite the commotion earlier, I think we need to get this story on camera so Alternate can report on it for the late evening broadcast. If that’s alright with you all…” Shift asked, as she made like she was sitting on a table, despite being made of nothing but photons and mana particles.

“Yeah, Miss Shift, never a dull moment around us, apparently,” Thompson replied, thankful no one was hurt overall.



***** ===== *****