Junction Pt. 02

She was in pursuit. He pulled a unit out. She started breathing on him as he got the second one seated and he reversed course and flew into her throat. He still had 6 units as he had installed a 500Ki unit during his rush. That was quickly consumed by the fire she shot at him. He put up two walls in her throat.

He called, "Still alive. I am working on getting her to crash. She is red and shaking her neck violently. I'm inside of her neck. I have a pair of telekinetic shields up, and I am currently naked and watching my Ki meter to swap in yet another unit before she fucking kills me. She breathed fire on me as you may have seen."

He heard back, "She is royalty from what we can tell. We are sending guards to your location. Tracing your signal. His meter dropped below a hundred again and he swapped in another 500Ki partial unit by mistake. He grabbed another waiting for that one run dry. She slammed into the ground and set off a ton of mines.

He had shrapnel coming at him, He banged around violently and his meter was below 20 now. He threw the old unit out as he got hit by more shrapnel. He was at 5 when it clicked into place. The damage had been done. He needed to heal and he could not do it in here. He left and she could start breathing again.

He had to take the chance before he passed out. He worked his way out as he willed his armor on. She came too and clamped down and took hold of his left leg at the knee. She sent a message to her mate, "I am badly injured. This fuck knocked me unconscious by blocking my breathing. I got him by the leg and working to rip it off of him! Then I am going to devour him after chewing on him for an hour!"

He was pissed now and threw an ice lance into her eye as she tossed him and finished ripping his leg off. She screamed in pain, which her mate heard in his comms. Jace bounced onto the ground and managed to miss the mines except for the one he was on top of one waiting for him to rise in order to explode. He sent his journal, "Lost left leg at the knee. She is hurt and I am hurt, but I am about to fall unconscious on top of an active mine."

He heard back, "Anyplace or way you can get to safety?"

Jace responded, "One place."

He focused as he shifted planes and passed out until his wounds healed. The mine exploded where he had been located.

---

The Defense Minister was in the War Room with the King as they watched 20 gold Dragon royal guards swoop into the area and destroy the mines around her downed body. They slapped a ring on her and manacles designed for dragon prisoners. Made her polymorph into a human and suppressed her magical abilities. They took her unconscious form to an interrogation room.

The Gold King nodded, "Jace found us one and it was a royal from BoYork. They have, of course, disavowed any knowledge of her being here. We are treating her as a prisoner of war right now and they know it. Dragon Telepaths will get to the truth or my interrogators will. Anything on Jace?"

The Minister of Defense looked over, "A video image was broadcast of this battle. He disappeared at the end and the mine exploded. His records have nothing on him being able to teleport."

The King nodded, "There was one report of him disappearing into thin air on a mission. He traveled into the Astral Plane. Untrained to do that. It is vast and he was extremely injured. How are they getting these broadcasts out?"

The minister sighed, "Your Majesty, They are coming in from a communication satellite or via a Genesis Station. We cannot isolate the source when they hack the word news system or our local news system and send these out there. It is dragons involved in that level of corruption. She is not the only one.

Regardless, they provide proof of her crimes. It also shows that one well-trained operative can bring down a Royal Dragon. That is bad for all on the Council. They will want this brought to rest and they will want to know who it was that brought her down."

The King sighed, "Release nothing on Jace. If the council asks why, tell them we are still investigating the activity surrounding her, and interrogating the one we have captured. Someone is making an attack on the Dragons across all city-states.

Point your claws at those Ki units in every military! They have faces and names to investigate that they need to answer to us about this first. As we are the aggrieved party here. They attacked us in our own lands."

---

Jace came out of the Astral Plane after recharging to a 100 and then installing a 2,000Ki unit. He found he had no idea where he came out at. He used the radio, "Minister of Defense. I have healed up. Somewhat."

He heard back, "You have been gone 6 months! Where did you go?"

Jace sighed, "I passed out on the Astral plane. I healed up enough to get conscious and return. The only place I could go before she started to heal up again and escape an active mine."

The Minister of Defense sighed, "I am picking you up halfway around the world over the ocean!"

Jace sighed, "Yes and I am running out of Ki units. I am flying in a sphere and will swap in others as needed. Realize to do this I have to be naked to switch these units."

He flew along for a while and switched units out as needed, cycling through them all as he did not even have any sighting of land from here. He was over the great Ocean known as 'The Depth.' Only a general direction to head based on directions given by the Minister of Defense.

Jace contacted him again, "I just put in the one I started with now. I have around 300 Ki at the moment and have exhausted my reserves. I have left my armor off in case I end up swimming for a while. I have dropped into the ocean on this wall. I am in an elongated sphere tight around my body as I am focused on staying afloat and reserving Ki. A small hole in which to breathe."

A few minutes later and he saw a gold dragon above him swoop down and pick him up. The next thing he knew he was inside the Royal Palace audience chamber naked. As he was dropped on the floor from 10 feet up. He reached into his bag and put his coat on. His left leg below the knee was still gone and grew far slower than he expected for a few hours, let alone 6 months. Looked as if it had only a few hours to seal the wound.

Jace nodded to the King as he bowed while seated on the floor of his chamber, "Your Majesty, I would like to report your attack was at least in part coordinated with a red dragon."

The Gold King sighed, "We know, my Bodyguards got to her before she could heal up enough to get into the air. She was actively hunting you before that ice lance. Trying to figure out where and who you were."

Jace nodded, "I understand as I saw her hunting me. Do you still have any of those 5,000Ki units, your Majesty?"

The King sighed, "We are working out a means to get the Ki out of them."

Jace nodded, "I have that. If I might be allowed to recharge all of the units I burned through? I went through many on this mission when it went sideways. I would gladly give you the glove to get the other Ki, your Majesty."

The King chuckled, "Where did you get this glove?"

Jace sighed, "One of the patrols. Someone was carrying it, likely a commander or general. I noticed the connector. It functions like a 25-vamp unit but only on those cells when directly connected from what I have seen. I could demonstrate for you, Your Majesty."

He pulled it out of his bag and held it up.

The King asked, "How many of those did you go through?"

Jace sighed, "Counting the one I was using to get to the elves, 8-2,000Ki, 8-1,000Ki units, and 6-500Ki units, Your Majesty. I have a few additional empty 2,000 Ki units if you are feeling generous, Your Majesty."

The King chuckled, "You come back, chewed up, still healing, and naked. You still find a way to find humor in the situation."

Jace nodded, "I could check all the outstanding bounties in the city as well and just get it that way. That would start getting a lot of DC's though to go with it, your Majesty."

The King nodded, "Marshal Cooper is on his way here. He said Rayne was beside herself fearing the worst. You have several months yet to heal from the looks of it. You can charge 10-2,000 units with them while you wait."

Jace nodded, "Thank you, your Majesty. That mission was going from bad to worse. I need to learn how to teleport. It would be a better escape strategy. I discovered the plane shift by accident during one mission. I was only gone a few seconds because I was shocked when I did it. But I survived the explosion that occurred in the area. My commander might have noted that, Your Majesty."

The Gold King nodded, "His reports on you were through. I should not be surprised to see you but I am, happily surprised. I had some mages search the Plane for you, but it is vast and multi-layered. I suspected you went there."

Jace saw 4 of those 5,000 Ki units set down and he started filling up his current unit and pulled out the mess of his medical kit and the other 7 empty 2,000Ki units along with the others he mentioned. He had to unpack to find his laser scalpel. "My apologies, your Majesty. My scalpel was not in my kit.

I had to throw it in to get out of her neck quickly. Just not quickly enough to save my leg. I had to unpack to find it. You would be correct in saying all that space and no clothes, your Majesty. The Coopers have them all, the two sets of clothes I own.

I never finished shopping at that mall. I needed access to that leg to switch units and clothes would not allow for that. Way more than I care to admit. Did you find the layer, your Majesty? I sent all of my recorded images including a series of man-made tunnels along the shore."

The King contacted his Minister of Defense. "Check the footage you got from Jace. Did you see a series of man-made caves? Along the shore."

The Minister of Defense looked, "I got a glimpse of something when he exited...going further back, yes there were 9 caves and he took one of the natural caves. The other 6 would be large enough for a dragon to get into. I am dispatching units to check them out now, your Majesty. The best lead we have right now to expand our investigation."

The King looked over, "Still a hot zone if you will. Your vehicle is still in the visitor parking in the elven lands. They were informed of your return from the astral plane. They were shocked that was where you went. The RECD knows of you by name now, but we released no information beyond your genetic make-up and the fact you left the military and joined the Marshal Service. That you were in Spec-Ops has been guessed but not the unit type at this point."

Jace nodded, "Some abilities I discover by accident. What happened to the red dragon, Your Majesty?"

The Gold King laughed, "The council voted, near-unanimously, that the reds should pay reparations for the losses and damage they did to us. There were weapons in play there. She cooperated to reduce what was taken from her and gave me one of my younger sons as her lover. What was termed 'nuclear silos.' 4 of them.

The weapons appeared functional but they were trying to reproduce the fuel which had evaporated away over the years. They gave up. Some scientists went into those and disabled them. The pair of them never divulged having a layer away from us.

The valley is still a Wilds in every other respect I still hold them both in confinement for now. Until I am satisfied we have what we need from them. You still have a job there once you are 100%. We did use some magic to remove the remaining and extensive landmines in that area that you identified.

Some may have been missed. Our military lost 15% of our people to those 5,000 Ki units. As did all of the others, almost 30% in the red dragon area of BoYork State. Something they were not happy about as well."

Jace swapped in the next one while he talked to him. The King sighed as the message came in, "You found a resource for us. They had thousands of DC chips that all appeared to be full from all over the world. We believe there are other actors. Now we have to try and get more names from those two. Doing telepathic integration of a dragon is damned near impossible.

Others probably did not return to it in case it was being monitored. The red female had developed a crystal for a UAV to detect magical fields, like your cloaking ability. My son HAD a half gold working for him. That offspring of his has been dealt with. She only made one crystal and it is in a vault at the moment. They also report a large stash of those 5,000 Ki units."

Jace looked up as he swapped in the next unit, "Technically 2 resources your Majesty. The hidden layer and the rockets. I identified the weapons and you have all the materials from those in your scientist's hands, Your Majesty."

The Gold King chuckled, "How did you find them?"

Jace smiled, "First I hi-jacked a land-mine map from the enemy. Then all of your drones had been programmed to avoid that area. I sent out a localized magnetic wave toward a drone near it.

Mission report number 5 would tell you how if the Commander was through as you said he was. It messed up the GWPS in the area and it flew over the area and got us our aerial view of the site with the 4 silos.

I told them that was where I suspected the weapons would be located, the new T54 rockets attached to those slabs. Those would make an airstrike difficult. Though, their biggest weapons were propaganda and fear, Your Majesty."

The King nodded, "You controlled when you took the gloves off. The female red had a hard time talking for days."

The King heard the response from the Minister of Defense, "I still do not understand how he did that, but I read about it in one of the mission reports you released to me. Technically 2 resources."

The King signed a royal order and handed it to his first assistant. She came back with 2 more of those 5,000 Ki units, "He said to fill those, He is also putting 7,000,000 DC's into your account. You may now use a 10ki vamp unit. Try to keep all transactions above board but reparations will be understood. We expect you will keep using good judgment. You now qualify as an entitled individual."

She dropped a new vamp unit factory sealed into his hand.

Jace nodded and bowed again, "Thank you, Your Majesty. I also pulled a whole slew of enhancement chips from those I took down. I would like Rayne and her mother to look those over first, Your Majesty. Might be another resource in there as well."

The Gold King laughed at Jace as she set those 2 units down next to him. Jace also noted his third favor was restored. Essentially a fourth one. Though nobody could hold more than 3 at once. Even another dragon.

Jace smiled, "Thank you, your Majesty. I had a personal question. In my favor for Rayne, you did not cover what happens if Rayne's protection failed. Would the children still be mine to raise?"

He sighed, "I could not rule on that hypothetical. It would depend on what happened to Rayne and your status. You raising children alone would be problematic. We have several options available including her parents that would be more viable than you. CGR is not currently in any plan because of what your concerns had identified.

I will not, at this point, look to give you the ability to raise them yourself if something happened to her. Because of our need to use your services in the future. Your arguments would be bolstered if you were married to her and we have not heard of your plans in that area. Being entitled does not gain you additional favor in that department as there is more to the equation than DC's."

Jace nodded his understanding. The favor in regards to the children would never make the children his to raise. Even if married Rayne, it would hinge on her being alive and the easiest way for them to break that agreement was for her to die. Unstated but a fact. He switched out units.

Marshal Cooper came in and Rayne was with him. Six months along but she looked 9 months or more. He kissed her as she came in for a hug. He smiled at her, "Did they give you all of my accounts while I was gone?"

Rayne shook her head, "I refused to do it for a year. You get injured again?"

Jace shook his head as he swapped in units, "I am charging these units at the moment, to answer your question it is still. I went into the astral plane and passed out there. I came out on the other side of the world when I contacted the Minister of Defense. I was gone a day at most from my point of view."

The King looked over, "Roughly 12 hours in the Astral plane and then another 8 hours to get a dragon who had been to that part of the world to teleport out and rescue you. We have studied the time differences. The Astral plane is like a large and deep ocean. Prolonged exposure will find you have traveled great distances as well, as you have seen. Its 'currents' are uncharted if you will."

Rayne remembered she was in the Royal palace and nodded to the King who chuckled, "Normally people bow but I do not get many as far alone as you appear to be in my court. I am not offended given what you have been through."

Rayne nodded again, "Thank you, Your Majesty. For getting him back."

Jace sighed, "As I was saying I was low on health and over open ocean on the other side of the world, The Ocean known as the 'The Deep' based upon my GWPS information. I ended up landing in the water and shrinking the size of my boat if you will, kept me afloat while I awaited rescue. To save on what Ki remained. I emptied every single one of these on that mission, I could have killed that damned scout. Some were already empty but the King is letting me fill them up while I am here."

He finished with the last of them an hour later.

He looked to the first assistant, "The gloves to transfer those units into our storage units. To allow you to mass-produce them for the Royal Family."

She nodded, "You have a lot of Ki for one so young."

Jace nodded, "I know and DC's as well. I might have to buy a few things as soon as I am walking. Like more clothes. A new set of armor because, pardon my language, the bitch swallowed my leg, Your Majesty."

He summoned on his armor, for now, the lower section from the knee down gone on that one side. "I got a design modification for you Rayne for the next set. I want it to be able to do a laser scalpel, sterilize the area and open up so I can install those without getting naked in the field."

Rayne laughed, "I will see if there is something I can do to fix that design issue. Not a lot of requests for that one."

He waved a finger, "Regenerating armor. If and when your leg gets chewed off."

Rayne shook her head, "I am very happy to see you too."

She kissed him again as he got to his feet; or more aptly his foot.

Coop handed him his bag as he slid in on the other side to support him.

Richard shook his head, "We need to see about you learning a few different spells to escape with."

They all bowed to the King as Richard continued. "If it pleases the court, we would like to take him home to finish recovering, Your Majesty."

The King nodded, "As always it was entertaining to have you in my court again, Jace."

Jace smiled and bowed again. Then they got him out of court. He got a message, "No reporters on the mission, or those involved. Media blackout."

Rayne and Richard got it as well. Helen called in, "You got him? I got a message not to talk with the media about your experience."

Jace waved, "The palace released me, I was only gone 12 hours then another 8 flying in an assigned direction to find an undisclosed meeting location to get rescued. I was over the open ocean across 'the Deep.' They probably suspect you would know and or hear. They wanted to be sure you were aware not to talk with the media."

They went to pull out of the palace to a large crowd of reporters everywhere. Jace sighed, "Turn on your loudspeaker."