Gods and Monsters

Research. The only thing that proved worth doing to Vexus. Ever since her run in with the red dragon dealing with Midas she has had a fascination with them. The intelligence, the transmutation, the durability, the affinity to magic. The power...It was all so appealing to her. However it was an absolute stroke of luck that she came across such a powerful entity, even more so that there was someone who assisted in its downfall. She still possessed the sword that assisted with the dismembering of this dragon, hopefully it would continue to prove useful.
The tests she was running on the wing of the Red Dragon's wing were proving incredibly fruitful. In a matter of weeks she had discovered and logged an incredible amount of information. The walls she kept hitting was the dying tissue of the severed wing. There was only so much information that the cells were currently retaining before dying off. Vexus had not gathered enough information about the biology or anatomy of Dragons to be able to create an artificial living space for these cells. Things were going to have to be put on hold placed on this research in order to secure more recent samples.
Now, finding a dragon may prove more difficult than researching the dead dragon wing. She had no leads, no information, no source, no anything on how she might even start attempting to look for a living dragon. Elena stepped away from the problem, gave it a couple days. Allowed it to marinate in the back of her mind. When she sat back down to rekindle her search, it started to come to her. She began checking news reports, buried internet articles, conspiracy theories. As many sources as there were trying to get the word out about something obscure like dragons, there were three times as many trying to cover it up. The dark side of the internet held a lot of secrets, a lot of which had been released by Vexus herself when she had a powerful grip on the internet as a whole.

She was able to find a couple of pages that dealt with the red dragon she had encountered. Another seemed to be a dragon hit list with most of the dragon names crossed off. It was all rather mysterious, even to her. Dragons have probably existed far longer than humans, and to think that humans may have been hunting them was incredibly interesting. Evolution seemed to be favoring humanity. However there was one still on the list that seemed promising. There was no name, no image, and only some vague information. It told her to search in the Northern Hemisphere. Elena couldn't help but roll her eyes at that statement, she did not have the time or patience to search literally half of the globe for a dingle dragon.
Vexus put some of her hacking skills to good use in the scenario and found out the origin of the post. The county, region, city, and even the address she managed to narrow it down to. The trail lead her to Russia...

Adorned with a calf length chinchilla coat, a fox fur ushanka, and fur lined leather gloves, she ventured through a dark and cold part of the former Soviet Union. All of this was almost too stereotypical. A secluded village in the middle of a snow laden country almost completely off the grid. Her Bodyguard had joined her in the adventure, but remained on the outskirts of the town to survey the area. Due to his mostly mechanical composition, he was not susceptible to the effects of the cold. In the town, Elena politely found herself at the house of an elder woman with a younger gentleman who seemed to be her caretaker.
"Добрый вечер. У меня есть несколько вопросов."
Her Russian is a little rusty, only brushing up on it briefly before the visit. She had not used it since the Cold War. The man who answered the door immediately when to shut it, not trusting the blonde haired woman. Vexus put her hand on the door and stared the boy in his eyes. He became frustrated when he noticed that even with two hands he was unable to overpower her and close the door.
"Я вознагражу вас за ваше время."
She was then allowed in, and sat in the small living room area.
"I've only allowed you in for the reward. Business is not great for us."
"But of course..." Elena handed them a brief case from underneath her coat filled with non-sequential, unmarked bills.
"Now, I am here because of a story on a Dragon..."
The two of them seemed dramatically uninterested. Even handing her money back to her.
"This is not the same. I intended to get rid of the dragon. I found this location due to a very, very obscure and encoded message on the dark webs. A very secluded and hard to access corner of the internet. You will never see me again, or hear of anything related to this dragon whatsoever."
The younger man stood aside, and the woman took a chair up very near Elena. The boy went to the kitchen area to make tea.
"It has not occurred for some time... However when my mother was a young girl, there was a powerful winged creature she used to see in the sky. Because we are such a small corner of Russia not much ever enters or leaves this town.... There was a gentleman, not too long ago, who came asking the same questions. However he only proposed death if we did not provide the information. This offer was far more promising.

"Any idea of where this creature may be residing currently...?"
"No... Record says there has been no sign since the Cold War."
Elena's eyes widened at that statement. Things were coming back to her about that time. The unknown missile, the experiments. Was it possible it was the same creature? She had read multiple reports about a failed missile launch from the Americans. Something that was never made public, even with her high clearance during that time she had to commit high treason to read such a document. This village absolutely holds more secrets than she it letting on.
"Thank you very much. For you time and information. I will be on my way."
The boy gave her a glare as she let herself out, and the older woman was just happy to see her gone.

Vexus returned to her Bodyguard who held up a laptop for Vexus to work on. Her eyes raced across the screen as she hacked into her own files on an old system over in Germany. She hoped she had copied, or scanned, or recreated these documents on the failed American missile launch. What had prevented this third world war? And would she still be able to find it. Every report that she was able to dig up pointed to the Arctic Circle. Which she had just barely entered by exploring this town.
"We have some hiking to do, my General. Make sure your systems are on the lowest power consumption setting."
He gave a nod from underneath the large cloak. From there, Vexus created an orb of Technomatter that the two of them fit into and they set off north, deeper into the Arctic Circle.
After a few hours of travel, she set them down. Vexus adored her Parada sunglasses and used them to scan for any and all signs of life. She felt as if she was on a wild goose chase, something similar to trying to find Big Foot or the Loc Ness Monster. But this was for her research, for science. For her own longevity. If there was ever anything driving Vexus, anything ever pushing her to keep going, it was keeping herself alive no matter what the cost. There would always be information to collect, and the human life was never long enough to collect an adequate amount. This 130 some years she's dealt with has been proof. This conquest, Dragons, would prove to be her most difficult and greatest piece of work to date...

Wind blew over his scales in large gusts, powdering him with sleet and snow. Days of work had finally payed off, as the large storm began to pick up. The dragon chirped happily, curling into a small ball, as snow piled up on him. The large beast drifted into sleep, small snores escaping his throat. Images of large quantities of treasure danced in his mind, it was a damn shame that his horde hadn't been what it used to be..ever since those damn Germans traveled up north and found his collection of religions items...the spear of destiny, the ark of the covenant, and his prized posession; excalibur, which he had willingly gave to some powered human.

Hours had passed, before something had awoken the serpent. The hairs along his spine stood as the presence of a strong magical energy entered his domain. One eye peaked open to see a bubble of energy moving towards him with two individuals within it. Locus allowed them to move closer, before he erupted from the ice and snow. He brought his head to their level, breathing in. A deafening roar erupted from his throat, as his massive wings spread open. "You're trespassing.." The beast stopped for a second, about to say mortals, but something about this being perplexed him "Creature..." His ever changing eyes were filled with rage  [IDUNNO MATE, I DID WHAT I COULD RIGHT NOW]

With her glasses on, she was able to see the beast lying in wait below the layers of snow and ice. He had clearly been waiting for them, no doubt incredibly aware of their presence. Elena had been exerting a large amount of magical energy in order to transport her and her general so quickly across the tundra. The two of them neared the living mass underneath the snow, and she brought them to a halt when it burst from the ground. Vexus landed the two of them, backing up quite a bit having underestimated the size of the beast. Her General went to grab a sword of his, but she put her hand up to signal for him to stop.
The beast brought its massive head down to their level, Vexus still taking a few steps back. Her techno matter swirled around at her feet, the pink glow of her Celestial eye very apparent. Elena noticed the dragon take in a breath, not know if he would be hostile or not she quickly erected a large wall of Technomatter around the two of them. What followed was not an attack but rather a roar on such extreme decibels it was almost painful even through the dense Technomatter. The barrier lowered, the grey sandlike essence still gently circling the two of them.

The dragon's eyes were almost hypnotic as he spoke to Elena. Say she was trespassing, and categorizing her as a creature rather than a human. Though he sounded unsure of his assumption. Either way the beast was not happy with their arrival.
"I am Elena Vexus. As to not bore you, I shall cut to the point. I have been conducting research on dragons, and as you can imagine it is quite difficult to come into contact with such creatures."
Vexus paused for a moment.
"We've crossed paths because I am in need of fresh samples. The specimen I have been researching passed sometime ago, and is making further genetic investigation near impossible."
She stared the monster dead in the eyes, not wavering the slightest in her confidence, showing no fear whatsoever.
"As a creature with your vast intelligence, I'm sure you understand there are a few ways we may be able to go about procuring these fresh samples. Which method you may decide, as I am but an intruder in these lands..."
She gave a bow to show respect, but soon raised her head. For once she did hope violence was not the answer here. As confidence as she was in being able to acquire the flesh of this beast by force, it would come at a rather steep price for her.[/color][/color]

Elena Vexus, straight to the point as to not bore me..conducting research on dragons.." The beast nodded slowly, bringing his head back as to not deafen the two individuals. "In need of fresh samples, as in, some flesh, saliva, possibly blood? Or perhaps some of my shit?" Locus was quite amused with himself with the last remark, letting out a small chuckle, after all, he was still a relatively young dragon, and dirty jokes were still his forte. He could tell though, she wasn't a fleshling that he should take lightly, his eyes locked with hers as she spoke. "Very well, very well, stop with the flattering.." The dragon waved his hand upward as she began to bow "I'm sure you know us dragons quite well..there must be a deal to be struck here."

The dragon sat down "As to not seem rude..my name is Locus..so far, it seems to be a pleasure to meet you, Miss Elena Vexus and..." he motioned towards the other individual "What is your name?"

Things were going smoothly. Both for her and the dragon, so far. He was aware of what she needed and appeared to have nothing against helping her, just so long as some type of bargain or trade was brokered. The beat asked about her body guard.
"I do apologize, this is my bodyguard. I just refer to him as The General." she removed his hood to reveal the mostly mechanical creation.
"He's on a lower power setting, so his speech is rather rudimentary at the moment. But it is our pleasure to meet you, Locus"
Vexus then fashioned a throne of sorts for herself out of her surrounding Technomatter, ready to see what she might have that may interest Locus.
"I am more than willing to make a deal with you in exchange for the samples I am after. During my many years of life on this planet I have procured a number of rare artifacts. They range from possessed swords, to magical literature, and even the petrified corpse of a red dragon. Simply say the word, and we can be out of your scales just as fast as we arrived."
Vexus was nearly over joyed that this did not resort in violence. She is still working out the kinks in some of her replacement bodies, and this one is starting to fade out. If she had to overexert herself just to acquire some samples, Elena might have failed all together on her mission to strengthen herself.

Locus nodded slowly at the hooded, mechanized being. "It's a pleasure, General." His eyes drifted back to Vexus, a grin began to appear across his face "Petrified red dragon, you say? Petrified in what way?" Locus always had a great disdain for his red scaled brethren. The pompous nature, the unwarranted violence, the constant need to show dominance across all other species of serpents. Locus had quite a few red dragon pelts under his belt, but this petrified corpse seemed too good of an offer to pass up. "Please, allow me to make things more..comfortable for you" He turned his head to the sky, and let out a quick, deep roar.

The wind began to die down, and the snow turned to mere occasional snowflakes. The area around them almost seemed to warm up to a more bearable temperature for her kind, whatever she may be.

Elena's mood lightened further when it sounded like he was interested in the body of the red dragon she had come across. The wing was the only thing she had managed to salvage from that encounter. Hulking the massive carcass from the ocean was a difficult enough ordeal, at the time she was rather distraught that is proved to be useless to her.
After Locus expressed interest in her specimen, he offered to make things comfortable. By letting out a roar, he changed the weather. The storm had lifted to a comfortable snowfall while the surrounding temperature also increased slightly. She made a mental note to see if this was a genetic trait or something of magical origin. Being able to control the weather was a fascinating ability.

She stared to fumble with her purse a little, working to get it open. The mechanism had frozen during their trip to this location.
"Are you familiar with the human story of Midas, the man with the golden touch?"
The back clicked open and a torrent of Technomatter rushed up and out. It swirled around behind Elena and her bodyguard, kicking up snow in its wake. The grey essence then began to settle and spin in different directions, becoming apparent that it was starting to take shape. A few more seconds passed and it had taken the cure form of a massive dragon missing a wing. It took a little over a minute, but the dragon had been completely rematerialized from Technomatter stored in her small hand bag.

Vexus wiped a bead of sweat from her brow, taking a deep breath in and exhaling. It had originally been quite the task to dematerialize this beast into technomatter, she had not been expecting the recreation of it to be this taxing on her stamina
"As you can see, the red dragon has been turned into gold. Done by none other than the previously fictional Midas. His wing had been severed prior to the transformation into the element, which I have back in my laboratory for testing. I am unsure if the gold state is permanent, but there have been no signs of it decaying while in my possession."
She stood up from her small throne, the tecnomatter moving from the chair to form a sort of scarf around her. She placed her hand on the now cool dragon she had brought into this arctic land. Elena brought her hand back to her side and looked at the dragon she was looking to make a deal with, unsure with what to say she threw her hands up in a fashion that said 'Tada!'. Hopefully he will still like to go through with a trade despite the dragon's interesting condition.