Magnus Magnusson was uncomfortable.
For an indomitable legendary fighter physical discomfort wasn't anything new- but right now he was feeling discomfort in his mind.
It reminded him of the time he and his companions had fought an army of flying brains- and as the memories flashed past, so fresh and clear, the feelings of discomfort grew.
It had been almost an entire day. Although in the background the identity check was proceeding at a frenzied pace- with the occasional probing question made to the man himself via proxy- to Magnus the world felt stifling. Everywhere he turned, there was something new and unfamiliar- a new thing everyone but him knew had to be learned and his mind was swimming with all sorts of strange words and customs.
People kept asking to stand by him, but rather than shake his hand or bump fists, they'd pull out their magic devices and pose next to him.
Catalina was friendly enough- but her strength and fighting style reminded him of Sierra and that reminded him of his other companions. The gloom deepened.
When Catalina brought a replica tankard to the room with dinner, it was more than he could bear.
"Niffy… Niflsora. She is in this city. Please tell me where I can find her."
"He means Azura." Potts commented through a mouthful of chicken.
Currently he was editing the next post of his 'factually accurate accounts of Magnus Magnusson', sneering at any flamers in the comments who tried to poke holes in the info that the man himself had given to him.
Catalina's mind was still sharp and several things snapped together. She hesitated and then taking out her communicator, opened a city map and pointed to High Waters.
"She should be in the South-West tower; The Springfall building. She owns several floors there."
"Where are we in this map of yours?"
Catalina pinched her communicator to zoom out and watched the sculpted demigod of a man peer intently at the screen, nodding to himself.
"I see. I shall go visit. I promise I shall not leave this city and will return here in time."
With that, he walked out to the balcony, and leapt off.
The three of them, spindly technician, meaty pilot and specops fangirl reacted simultaneously- rushing to the handguard and peering out over the edge. He'd leapt to the rooftop of the next building over and in a few breaths had reached the edge of the roof. The surrounding buildings were all taller- but bafflingly he leapt towards one anyway. Mid air he twisted his body so the flat of his boots met with the exterior of the highrise- and he began to run along it, perpendicular to the ground.
"Is that a magic item or, just something he can do?"
Pott's question snapped Catalina out of her Reverie- she contacted her superiors.
Under any other circumstance leaving custody in such a manner, would undoubtably result in the full and undivided attention of the city's law enforcement.
Right now though, a question that had long since disappeared into the annuls of history had risen forth- even if they wished to bring him in, did they have the capacity?
Even dragons and mighty wizards could be humbled and with modern advances, while they had respect, the attitude of major powers was not one of fear and submission.
But this was not a dragon.
This was Magnus Magnusson.
A man who, if tales were to be believed, once punched a beast so hard it crashed into the moon.
While the commanders dithered and consulted with statesmen, the rank and file who caught wind began to prepare for the operation. Autograph books were pocketed, comics pulled from lockers and tucked under vests- and each made fearful, excited calls to their friends and family.
Meanwhile Magnus himself reached the hotel She was staying at. Probably. He'd asked for directions several times by knocking on the windows of the tower blocks he was traversing.
Alas while two hundred years ago knocking on someone's window to ask for directions was rather normal, it was not only unusual today, it was basically unheard of for someone living or working in a tower block.
If it wasn't for the generally heroic aura Magnus gave off, he'd have undoubtably been reported dozens of times by the time he reached the Springfall building, rather than becoming a trending topic.
He was met however by a fully kitted team in advanced body-armour and wielding state of the art weapons. Magnus sized them up.
"I'm here to see nif… Azura."
"Sorry Sir. We've orders not to let anyone up until today's event is over."
"… I'm sorry too. I'm going to see her." The determination in his voice nearly made the fingers of the team tighten on their triggers.
"Can't you wait!" It was unprofessional, but when the leader snapped his question was received calmly.
"I can. I won't. Once I've decided on something, I shall not yield. Even if I have now broken promises, that just makes what I do from here on more important-" He raised his fist- only to have his scarf tap him on the shoulder. He looked at it, and it shook its 'head' horizontally at him.
"Ah… She owns this place. Some of it. I should be careful. Thanks."
He walked forwards, and his scarf sprang to life. It had been restrained since they entered the city- but now it extended and snaked forward in an instant. Even to the trained, magically enhanced and cybernetically augmented eye, it was difficult to perceive the moment that it stole the weapons from their hands and sucked it into the fabric.
The normal staff of the hotel had been (reluctantly) evacuated in advance once it had become abundantly clear where Magnus was heading. Azura was oddly silent when tentatively probed and so the conference security could only do their best to prevent him from simply walking all over them. They pulled out secondary weapons and attempted to subdue him with a coordinated combination attack. But it wasn't like Magnus was simply going to stand around. The grand foyer extended up several levels with open sided walkways and stairwells supplementing the elevators- and a suspended twisting stream of water formed a floating river that snaked its way through the air and eventually poured into a stone garden on the ground floor. Magnus aimed for this, his feet digging into the water and sending him skipping up the stream. In moments he'd reached the second-floor walkway. The team split up and with their colleagues on the higher floors, they tried to chase Magnus down through the building. Tried being the operative word. They almost cornered him on the 17th floor, but he prised open the doors to the elevator and began to ascend the shaft by leaping from wall to wall.
It took him just six minutes to ascend the entire building and exit onto the rooftop landscape that connected the four hotels. It was beautiful he had to admit. Not just in design, this place was cared for. And… it was familiar.
Laughter drifted to his ears and lead him to a grand open aired pavilion bordering onto the lake that formed the 'source' of the High Waters waterfall.
The guests, old and distinguished, young and elegant- they saw the godlike figure stride into their midst, his eyes fixed on the lakeside.
He'd felt it since he reached the roof, but now he'd come within a hundred meters, he was certain… and nervous.
If it was back then, he would've laughed with her, they would've drank and fought and it would've been so simple and happy.
But now things were different and the weight of his broken promises slowed his steps.
The crowd parted silently, as he approached the lady who sat alone by the lake, forlorn, elegant and flawless (As only a natural knockout backed up with the incredible firepower of a six hour morning session with the world's best professional aestheticians could be).
"I'm back."
"I know."
She turned to gaze at Magnusson and he felt his heart skip-
"Az..Nifl… Niffy."
At last she finally smiled- even as she chastised him-
"Don't call me that."
"I'm sorry..." He approached and reached out.
"I came back, but, everyone is gone. Everything is so strange… But you look just as we first met."
'Niffy' hadn't imagined that their fateful meeting would be like this -even after centuries her memories of Magnus were of unwavering strength. Right now, his bare hand brushed her cheek as a whisper escaped his lips- spoken so softly only she could hear it.
'Please be real' it was so faint, and yet it overflowed with sadness and longing.
She looked at the hero's face, filled with unshed tears and understood.
Slim arms wrapped his neck in a hug-and wetness spread where his face met her shoulder.
The embrace that ended centuries of unspoken loss and separation caught the hearts of the onlookers- just as the dragon leading the hero away from the party caught their imagination.
Seeing the two meet, security let out a sigh of relief and ceased their chase. Even the crassest ape would not intrude upon a star-crossed meeting- especially when the lady was just as terrifying as the man.
"It must have been hard for you." She squeezed his rough, battle hewn palm as they waited in front of the elevator.
"For me? I left you all behind?"
"For you. For the undefeated man to lose. The honest man to break his promises. The man who always came in the nick of time to know he was late."
"…It hasn't been so long for me."
"You find it hard to accept?"
"I do."
The dragon caught her hero by the chin and forced him to meet her eyes.
"In our hearts, not one of us blamed you. And I believed in you. That you would come back one fine September, like nothing had happened, laughing and tossing aside all trouble. I don't know if I should be happy or sad that you're relying on me now. It's unimaginable that the 'you' back then would really need anyone."
"I hadn't thought about it. Not once. Being alone."
The doors opened in front of them, light spilling out and cutting through the darkness.
"You aren't alone. I'm here. Isn't that enough?"
In the High Waters security centre, their audience blanched. The entire complex bristled with sensors, and the people at the beating heart of it all frequently saw all the dramas of life played out across their screens. They'd built up sturdy defences and professional indifference to what they witnessed- But Azura and Magnus had delivered repeated consecutive blows, with the soulful sickly-sweet atmosphere, radiant appearance and devastatingly insipid words…
For the eternal bachelors and bachelorettes in the security centre it was too much.
The oldest on the crew slammed her head against her desk and let out heartfelt words brimming with bitterness;
"Why is life so unfair? I want a cold dragon to speak sweet words to me!"
Her single comrades agreed and let out their own complaints;
"If those assholes downstairs did their job we wouldn't have to watch this."
"My heart can't take it! My crush found someone else two years after we started working in different cities, how come they're together after centuries!"
"Can't we just set off the fire alarm or something?"
"I need that voodoo stuff we confiscated last week. Research purposes."
"Ah… they'll be going to Azura's floors via the private elevator on floor 38. We don't get a live feed from the sensors there- Does anyone have the password for the storage server in cabinet-SF28?"
"Just tried, their guys changed it since the last time we requested access during that incident in April."
"Leader are you okay?"
The leader raised her head, her blurry eyes dead and resentful.
"No. All I have to look forwards to is instant noodles and a body pillow. If I think about how I'll never cuddle a real dragon, I'm just going to cry myself to sleep…. Oi. Our teams stopped chasing mister muscle minutes ago right?"
"Yeah, they're back on their regular routes, lobby, floor patrols-"
"Then why is their keycard being used on floor 28? It's been swiped over six times in the last 90 seconds. Banks, notify the teams, James, get our drone to sweep the exterior, Lau, get us access codes to the security servers on the private floors."
"Jules, the drone's already patrolling but I can't take control- I think it's been 'jacked."
The team leader grimaced.
"That seals it. Probably a corporate Opper team. Call building two for eyes on the company ambassadors from Echo, Mirage and Jetstream media. I'll jack in."
"Jules, should we let this one by? It's a corporate tussle, we're providing security for the event?"
Jules grunted as she slipped off her jacket and prepared to use the Illusion Reality hook in to the building's network. Around her, the team was moving furiously, activating their 'ware to accelerate their thoughts and actions and switching from manual to direct interface with the security terminals. The casual atmosphere from earlier was completely gone.
"We can't let it by. We're on the line for this… And even more vitally." As she attached the headset her words transitioned into messages sent to her team's text channel.
[We have two powerful immortals in the middle of a storybook reunion. I'm slowing down the elevator, but we have less than three minutes to kick these people out without either of them noticing.]
The subtext of her words hit home- unless it was from a hacked IR unit there wasn't much actual risk to working from the inside of a hardened security booth. Normally.
Tonight was not normal.
Half a bock away, in a room swimming in empty takeaway boxes and illegal spy-toys a tanned man wearing aviators and a singlet started swearing.
"Team, timeline has moved up. Spiders have noticed you, Archon security teams 1-4 are sweeping up to box you."
"The hell? How long do we have?" Inside the Springfall building, the ops team moved swiftly despite their complaints. There was no need to discuss their backup plan- it had long been decided. One group would run interference to buy time- the other would go straight to the private offices.
Compared to going undetected this was much messier- but it was tens of times faster and better than leaving empty handed.
"I'll tell you when I know!" The Opper hacker went limp as his implanted IR 'ware activated.
The group going to the offices had a very specific objective, Azura's tablet. They'd been waiting for days until their spotter at the party informed them she'd been using a bag with a mouth too small to fit it- which meant it would be in her offices at the building.
Intelligence gathering had revealed that the Dragoness would frequently take long baths while reviewing various confidential reports on her tablet- and a few days ago they had a tip that the early copies of her conglomerate's annual reports had been sent to her for review.
Compared to breaking into the corporate HQ and trying to get access to their secure PC's and servers, the difference in difficulty of swiping and breaking into her personal tablet was like heaven and earth.
However, the moment the Opper chimed in again, everyone's heart sank.
"SHIT, she's not at the party- she's on her way down, and her boyfriend AKA MAGNUS MAGNUSSON is with her! Team B, the elevator is running slow but I don't have access to stop it- find the service box near the elevators and plug my uplink in!"
Both teams redoubled their efforts, team A's shaman brute force dispelled the security wards around the office- the backlash from the security caused him to double over coughing blood. As the team medic kept him from going into shock, charges were set on the door.
While team A prepared to breach and team B prepared to disrupt the building security forces, the technical support of both side were working frantically to disrupt the other. The infiltrators team used the gadgets they'd hooked into the building security to close doors, strobe lights, engage locks and sprinklers. The team in the building's security booth worked to direct their people to seal the building and counter the enemies mischief, to call city law enforcement to the site and importantly, the team leader was trying to locate where the infiltrator's support unit was operating from to cut the attack at the source.
Without external support from the team hacker, cornering the infiltrators would be significantly easier. In illusory reality, the security team leader Jules allowed her senses to link to the building. This was what no normal computer could match up to- the combination of silicon circuits and delicate enchantments that channelled the endless stream of information into a form that a single mind could comprehend in an instant. With a single thought, she calculated the intruders height from the camera footage and created a task to search past footage for possible matches. She messaged her team members and sifted through the network to find the foothold her opponent was using to gain access.
In the outside world, mere seconds had passed since she entered, but from her perspective, the feeds from the cameras flicked by as a slideshow of still frames.
She found the entry point- a modified smartphone charging cable plugged into a terminal on the first floor some days ago. Forcibly logging every user off the local network except for her own team, she pulled up the employee file on the workstation's user.
It was a fresh faced college kid by the name of Alef Wutter and a quick peek at his social media profile informed her that he'd gotten a new phone from his partner as a gift- although they'd only been dating for a week.
Jules took one look at the boy's partner and was 90% sure the man was among the infiltrators- which was a shame, the two seemed to have good chemistry.
With a pinch of her fingers, she pulled apart the stream of information flowing out of the building and inserted something of her own.
The Opper cursed again- "Team. Good news, the couple are enjoying their time in the elevator. Bad news, you fire anything larger than a pop gun, without a muffler spell, they will hear it, and everyone dies. I'm trying to fool the elevator into going to floor 25 but you have two-"
Just as Team A breached the doors, they heard breaking glass and a terrible scream over the comms.
"Shit- They must've backtracked his connection and sniped him with a drone!" "Shut it. We're going out loud. Spread out, find the tablet, prep your chutes. B-Team, I'm taking point, get to the nearest side office and make your exit. Contingency Gamma!"
"I have a concealed safe, third desk drawer."
"Pop it!" The de-facto leader threw a puck to the man searching the desk. The puck was caught, twisted twice counter-clockwise and adhered to the desk-safe. Seconds later the metal was bathed in liquid helium- instantly cooling and turning biscuit-brittle.
Anotther team member unslung a hammer from his backpack and took an overhead swing at the safe, augmented arms pushed to the limit. The desk collapsed and the frozen metal shattered- revealing a slim, personal device in a velvet sleeve.
"Tablet! It must be it- let's move!"
"Window is warded."
"Overwatch, I need A.M. breaching rounds on my position." the leader's request was met with a volley of rounds. Three slammed against an invisible force while approaching the window- but the last made it through and drilled straight through the glass, shattering it into a shower of shards.
The team wordlessly leapt out of the window and activated their spy-toys; paragliders with carbon fibre frames, folded into a single three-foot pole. Meanwhile team B fired off a zipline to an adjacent building and slid down it to escape.
The local security teams that caught up to the invaders could only watch the getaway and coordinate with the police.
"Should we evacuate the building. Azura's going to be pissed."
"Just wait and see. Everyone leave the area for now. Let the police go after them and assess the damage here."
The security booth waited nervously for the reaction when the most powerful lady in the world would walk in and find her room looking like an active war zone.
In actual fact, the moment the breaching rounds hit the window, Azura's eyes flickered in the elevator and she pulled away from Magnus for a moment.
She'd felt someone attack the wards on her office window, and when she extended her senses further, she found her office security wards had been expertly dissected.
The elevator pinged for the 28th floor and immediately Magnus's nose twitched.
"Niffy. I smell a fight? Do people still seek your horde?"
Azura's expression shifted a micrometre. Within she was already condemning the impertinent fools who dared intrude upon her domain. Briefly she considered taking Magnus to another room in the building, but changing her plans because of mere insects was not something her pride could tolerate. She reached up and brushed the back of her hand across his cheek.
"Pay it no heed. Come." Magnus didn't resist and let himself be pulled forwards- through the destroyed doors of Azura's office and past the shattered glass of the floor to ceiling windows and into the untouched domain of her own bedroom. The moment the door clicked shut, the room was completely isolated from the outside world- not even a direct hit from a cruise missile would've broken through the wards.
Jules felt the pressure of the last few minutes evaporate and messaged the security team.
[We're in the clear! T_T A serious protection has been erected on the 28th floor, unlikely to dissipate for a few days.]
The teams around the building relaxed. After such a near brush with death, the relief was palpable.
[Alright. Break's over. I've secured permission to dispatch teams to collaborate with law enforcement. Gear up and get your asses moving. Half now, the rest when the party upstairs is over. We have until the lovebirds are done to catch those assholes and hand them over on a platter!]
Jules's message turned relief to steely resolve. Even in a good mood, a dragon was still a dragon and a boss was a boss.
Favours were called in, deals were struck- and before long, law enforcement, mercenaries and corporate muscle were magically and technologically scouring the city.
For the ops team, they felt they'd entered their own personal slice of hell. Apart from the official search parties, the city itself was looking for them. Although the teams split, scattered and disguised themselves before regrouping, they lost two members from a simple report by a private citizen.
Although they were elites with a well prepared and thought out exit plan, they hadn't banked on being hounded by hundreds of the best professional mages, hackers and mercs in the world.
As for why those people would help, the answer was simple. Who asked you to offend Azura and Magnus at the same time? Even if they had ten lives it wouldn't be enough.
Azura at least had been mellowed by the two hundred years since the chaotic times of sword and magic- if she caused any destruction it would probably be localised to the source of her displeasure and she would provide compensation after calming down.
Magnus was a completely unknown quantity- and with the two of them together, who knew how they might react.
Rather than find out, the best option with the lowest risk was for everyone to take the opportunity while the couple was occupied with their 'reunion' and join hands to preemptively resolve the issue.
On the night of the second day, the Ops team fled their second safehouse. The contact that was supposed to get them out of the city betrayed them. Their first safehouse was compromised after just a few hours when the hacker they'd hired was caught and interrogated.
Which was another problem. They had to keep the tablet in a sealed case and couldn't break through the security without an expert- and they didn't dare try and contact their employer without someone to monitor the connection.
Eventually they tracked down an independent and coerced him into breaking open the devices security.
Only to find they'd gotten the wrong article. This wasn't Azura's business tablet. It was her personal device. Instead of the business data they were expecting, they got family photos, her novel collection and browsing history. While knowing that the frigid and unreachable dragon mogul frequently treated herself to spicy noodles and rice wine was both interesting and valuable data, they definitely would not be getting a payday that would help them escape this mess.
Their cover identities and financials were being rapidly torn through as if they were the only criminals in the city, their general descriptions were sent out by text message to the general public- they just wanted to cry. Was it really so bad? Doesn't this happen all the time? Why are you picking on us!
On the morning of the third day, they were cornered inside a condemned building. They'd made contact with the middleman, Mr Johnson, who'd offered the use of an illegal teleportation circle out of the city to extract them.
Their contact however, had already been locked up and the voice simulation software impersonating him had effortlessly lead the team into the waiting arms of the law.
Only four remained. The team leader and three subordinates. He slumped against the wall of the building, nursing a fresh bulletwound.
"It should've been such a simple job. Never get involved with dragons..."
"Has overwatch checked in?"
"He's smarter than that. He's gone completely dark- knows this is all completely FUBAR."
"Think they'll kill us?"
"Not until Azura gives permission...."
A slight fluctuation of magic occurred nearby, and a stun grenade appeared seemingly from thin air.
The team didn't even have time to swear- when they regained their senses, they were already being restrained.