Who Saves The "Saved"? (Vexx)

News choppers circled.
Police had blocked off streets, and shut down a large part of the city. The Saved cult had taken a hospital. Apparently angry at a shipment of hospital goods The Patriot and some heroes had prevented them from doing. "What's going on?!" a captain made his way through the barricade. "Those thugs are holding hundreds of people hostage. They refuse to talk to cops. The want a chopper and immunity."
"You shittin' me?"
"No sir!"
One of the saved stood on the roof holding a girl who couldn't be more than 18. "New plans. For every 5 minutes you don't send the chopper I kill someone. I'd get to work on that immunity deal, she looks very squishy!" he cackled.

A red white and blue blur showed up in the police barricade.
"It's ok officers. I can help from here. I've been watching. Waiting to make my move."
"Pho-Patriot! Thank you for showing up."
"No need for thanks, what I do need is for you to get as many of your officers and any civilian stragglers as far from here as possible."
"I can't just turn tail and run, Patriot."
"I need you to tell me where the hostages are."
"Third floor, they seem to be controlling the second. Making it impossible, but I can't JUST RUN."

Andrew smiled with assurance.
"Captain that's far from what I'm asking you to do. I'm just saying I know I got this one handled, trust me. I need more area."

"Is..Fucking Patriot. Y'know Deity keeps saying you'll eventually join us. He spoke of you leading us with him."
"I wouldn't bet on that one, but how about you let that young lady down and we talk man to man. I can help you."
"If you say so."

The girl was tossed off the building. Patriot created a slide of ice under her, that circled and landed her in his left arm.
"I gotcha."
"My mother is in there Patriot."
"And your mother will be fine." He smiled.
She was so convinced by his kindness and genuine promise she started running where the police directed.

"Well. Just me now. Can I come in and make some negotiations. I happen to own a helicopter myself."
"What's to say you don't crush my skull like some of the other vigilantes! I've seen your power!"
"Dude. When have you ever seen or heard of me crushing anyone's skull. Not my style. Trying to play peacemaker."

Truthfully he had an entire plan up his sleeve he just needed to get inside and charisma would be his only way to ensure no lives get taken right away.
"Let him in!" the doors opened and Patriot walked , upon entering the main hall he scanned quickly. He saw some windows. He pretended to slip over himself and put his arm through a window shattering it. The thug quickly pointing a gun at him. "Easy easy. Just a slip." he dusted the glass off his suit.
"Now let's get to talking." The first floor now completely empty, a window letting in a slight breeze as the hero grinned making his way to the whatever table he had set up for talks. He knew their weapons couldn't hurt him, but he didn't want to piss them off.
"The boss is truly full of surprises." the cult member spoke, likely in regards to the head of this horrible idea.
Before they turned up the last flight of stairs, the two guards escorting Patriot had their feet frozen to the ground and each catching a spinning heel kick.
He froze them up to their necks. They'd be fine for now. He cracked his knuckles and prepared to meet their "Boss".

Deimos was having a great, perfectly normal, day. He woke up around noon, which was considerably early given his nocturnal natural clock. He’d read some books, reorganized his library for like the milionth time and was now headed down stairs for lunch

His mother was fixing some incredibly elaborate sandwiches in the kitchen, while his father was watching the news.

“Hostage situation in New York… Crazy goon says they’re killing someone every five minutes.” Ed speaks up past his sandwiches.
“I’m not a hero, dad. There’s people whose job is to deal with that.” Deimos waves it off, going for his sandwich before looking back to the news screen.
“Just saying. I know you’ll feel bad if someone gets hurt while you’re eating sandwiches.”

The half-dragon was silent for a minute, staring into the screen as a terrified young woman was dragged onto the roof. With a heavy sigh, he couldn’t stall any longer. His father was right, if someone got hurt and he’d done nothing, he wouldn’t feel alright with himself. He turns to the backyard before the news had even shown the man dropping the girl off the roof, taking thirty seconds to change.

Dark scales reflect the waning sunlight as he forces himself aloft, headed to New York City at breakneck speeds.

XXX

Deimos reached New York unbelievably fast, however not quite fast enough to see the girl get dropped into safety. His presence did cause a bit of panic as a huge set of star set wings and scales descended from the clouds. Police raised their guns and hid behind cars as people scattered like mice.

His secondary wings descend as his main set pulls him up vertically to a hard stop, landing him gently onto an adjacent building. Bricks cracked a bit under the weight, but the building he’d landed upon was relatively unharmed.

His wings fold up around him as his body seems to turn to a large, dark orb. It had a very liquid texture as it engulfed the body of the dragon. Within thirty seconds the dark liquid drops to reveal Deimos’s human body. He moves to the edge of the building, dropping down, fall guided by his wings to land him safely on the ground.

The police lower their guns as a man showed himself rather than the huge dragon from earlier.
“Hey, I’m here to help out.” Deimos raises his hands, looking to the hospital.

“Patriot just went in. If you want to help, go help him.”

So much for trying to stay out of the spotlight. Last thing Deimos wanted was to get sucked into superherodom. Oh well, perhaps he could just disappear for a while after this.

The police line clears to allow Deimos through. He trots through the first floor of the hospital pretty easily and catches up with Patriot in no time just before the boss’s room.

“Hey, I- um… want some back up?” He asks nervously, just trying to figure out how to help out one of the most famous heroes in the world, while keeping a good bit of social distance. At least the Police chief didn’t ask many questions other than noticing he had some kind of abilities and sending him in to help.

Deimos quickly makes a draconic enchantment. His hands glimmering with bright blue energy which transfers to around Patriot, a thin blue dust forming an aura around him. A shield. It’d eat the first attack thrown at him in his entirety. This was solely to prove he could be useful.

Andrew rolled backwards swiftly as soon as he heard a voice and backflipped over them, before covering their mouth. He began to speak softly. "I appreciate you coming to help, I really do. However this is a really sticky situation. So before I agree to let anyone else walk into a firefight with multiple lives on the line I need to know all of your powers and skills. Clearly you can shield people. I promise that won't be needed for myself."

He looked at the two frozen guards next to them. He wrapped a layer of ice around their mouth's to make sure when they wake up, if it was before the heroes were done they'd be quiet.

"I'm Patriot by the way, pleasure to meet you." his smile wide and hopeful.
"Also we have about 3 minutes and that's being generous to get a plan together. Their leader is expecting and likely expecting they're giving me a hard time so, I don't mean to rush ya, but time isn't our friend here."

Another guard came around the corner.
"I thought you idiots were bringing the boy scout u... what the fuck?" the man asked before pointing his gun at them. Andrew rolled around Demos and bent the guards rifle barrel. Rendering it useless. The then elbowed him once in the jaw and knocked him out cold.
He froze him and his mouth joining his friends. Grabbing the guards walkie Patriot did his best impression to say "all clear coming up in a minute now."

"Alright my friend. We really gotta move and plan fast."

Deimos startled as the other man unexpectedly seized him. His wings stiffen up, half-unfurling best they could. As soon as he felt his heart wasn’t about to explode out of his chest in surprise, he lets out a deep breath.

He couldn’t help but feel rushed. 3 minutes to explain everything was not easy to do without a bit of a nervous stammer. “I’m Deimos, I-” He shakes his head trying to get his thoughts back under control.

“I can make you, or in this case hostages harder to off. I can also temporarily blind people and maybe leave some people with some burns, so that might be helpful. And I can be a dragon.” That last bit trails off a bit as he checks for any kind of disbelief. So far Deimos was amazed no one had laughed in his face when he mentioned he could be a full blown, literal fire breathing dragon.

As soon as the man with his gun showed up, Deimos’s wings began to glow with a thousand stars, first dimly, then the undersides began to grow vibrant with swirling stardust of pinks, blues, greens and purples. Eventually even his already bright blue eyes glowed with draconic magic. However, Patriot had dispatched the man much faster than he could, however his beam was already charged. He could hold onto it for later when it’d be more useful.

“I had a thought on the way up here… If they want a chopper. Give it to them. I can take it down away from the civilians where no one can get hurt and the cops can arrest them.” He stammers out in a sort of word-vomit method, as if he were just spewing his idea as it popped into his head. Eyes still glimmering with magic and draconic rage. "I um... had to do it once already in Chicago. Although that time wasn't nesicarily to take the chopper down... just to get it to the ground safely."

"A dragon you say? That will be useful. Ok I'll stall and get them the chopper. You think you can make your way on to the roof and take out potentially 4-7 guards?" Andrew smiled. "I can handle the hostages in the room. So get going and I'll meet you up there... what is your name?" he asked before taking off up the stairs.

He got to the door and two gunmen blocked his way. "Where are our partners?"
Andrew shook his head. "They figured I couldn't exactly get lost between the first floor and the third so they're likely guarding the front door."

"Checks out, Kiowlski is a lazy fucker anyways." One of The Saved laughed to the other.
"Well she's inside. Waiting for you."
Andrew walked into a room set up with a desk a few chairs, about 10 hostages tied up with blind folds against a wall and a woman in a mask staring at him.

"Oh Andrew. It's been so long." The Patriot knew that voice. He shuttered. Chills almost crept up his spine but he maintained his composure. She laughed and about 6 Saved stood around with guns in hand. "You really have working on that poker face. Deity said you didn't even budge when Seraph's face was shown. Thick skin. I'm disappointed. Apparently my boy used to be so head strong."

As she pulled the mask and let it drop on her desk, the face of his dead mother was worn by this woman. Another ploy by their boss to screw with him.
Andrew gulped quickly. "My mother died. I watched Holocaust kill my family years ago. You aren't her. She's resting in peace."

"So disciplined!" the woman cackled. "You haven't even used that fire of yours since coming back into the public eye. Scared?"

He looked down and then stared her in the eyes. "None of you have been able to push me to the point of needing my trump card. It's all cheap tricks and theatrics so far. You hurting innocent people is really starting to piss me off though."

He crossed his arms. "So you want a helicopter? I can make that happen. Hostages stay with me."

The woman laughed. "You think you make the demands here?"
"No. I KNOW I make the ability for you all to either get your little chopper and tell Deity I'm coming soon enough, or I ruin another one The Saved's opps."

He sat in a chair and leaned back a little. Not breaking eye contact.
"Call the chopper. Let's get out of this hospital."
Andrew pressed his dog tags.
"AVIAN send The Wing."
It would be there momentarily. However he notices there was a detonator on the woman's desk.

Andrew stood up and looked out the window.
He turned back to the woman and the detonator froze completely in a solid chunk of ice. All of the armed guards guns began to freeze and then shatter into pieces as well.
"There's no need for violence and you're getting what you want."
Andrew saw the chopper flying in the distance.
"Your ride is almost here."

He began making his way to the roof, the hostages freed and running out of the building. He hoped His new friend took care of the muscle up top.

“Deimos, Buy me some time and I can take care of them quietly.”

The half dragon turns tail, taking a light jog off to another building to switch. As the watery darkness consumed his human body, he began thinking of ideas. Last thing he wanted to do was to cast a shadow in the windows and alert the cult inside to his presence. The sun was starting to wane so there was a bit of room to play with so his shadow didn’t hit the windows. Part of him was bummed these lunatics decided to pull their tricks during the day, if it were night there’d be zero chance they’d see him coming.

Up into the air the king of the skies lifted, his wings swallowing the air currents beneath him as he climbed into the clouds. His keen vision counted five gunmen, an easy grab for the dragon. He could fit two men in his arms and one in his jaw. However he’d have to make this fast. One gunshot would ruin the stealth.

He soars, cloaked in the clouds, facing into the sun to cast his shadow behind him. He watched for one man to avert his attention. As soon as one guard yawns, he dives, surrendering his weight to gravity. The dive left him scalping the top of the building in a the blink of an eye from the corner of the yawning man. He scoops him up, grabs a second, then a third, a forth and he accidentally pushes the last man over the corner of the building.

A minor flutter of panic hits the dragon as he lurched forward with his snout, teeth closing as gently as he possibly could around the man’s thigh before he made so much as a three foot decent and ascended as fast as he could to control the noise from the screaming men he was carrying. Three dropped their weapons on impact and one emptied low caliber bullets into his plated scales until the gun was empty, earning nothing more than a dislodged scale and the other beat against Deimos’s teeth with his fists until Deimos felt a horrible pop in the mans leg.

Part of him felt bad for carrying a man by his broken leg, and his sharp teeth scoring his skin, but he couldn’t really help that. Better than dropping him from a thousand feet in the air. He ducks down in altitude, landing behind police lines and behind a building to obscure him. He releases his fists full of captives and the one from his jaws. Four sprinted to the police, practically begging to be arrested, anything to avoid going airborne again. The broken man struggled to get up, shambling away from the dragon who simply stared down at him in an unreadable expression. Luckily some police helped him to his feet and ushered him away.

With a hefty swell of his wings he was aloft again, watching for a moment to ensure the arrest of the roof guards was under control. Then he takes up into the clouds again, hiding himself as he awaits for the chopper to join him in the air.

In the back of Deimos’s mind he began to think on logistics of taking the helicopter down. Deimos could stop his decent within ten feet as normal. However that was not carrying a heavy aircraft, If he attacked from the top right of the bat, there wasn’t a guarantee he wouldn’t run it into the ground. Attacking from the side could knock it into a building which was just as bad. A plan began to hatch in the back of his head, he’d have to hit it from below. He’d knock it higher into the air with his body weight and guide it down after he got it under control. He’d get himself under it at full speed as soon as it flew high enough.

"Well I'll be dammed. Kid can turn into a full on dragon."Andrew laughed from the rooftop watching the majestic sight of his partner flying.
The hero looked at the woman with his mother's face. "You and I are going to have a chat." He created a blade on the tip of his boot and circled the woman. The spot she was standing on falling through and so did she.

"Hey Deimos! Make sure these guys get their chopper and do your thing. You know. Get em' outa here. I'll met up with you when I'm finished with her."

He leaped down the hole he created to see she was grabbing a gun and aiming it at him. "Really?" he frowned. That's when he showed up.
Deity showed himself again. It had been some time.
"Seems like the little dragon boy wants to play with the super hero!"
The room flickered.
"How do you know this woman isn't your mother I brought back? How do you know she isn't another version of her from an earth I conquered and I've offered you a gift? I DID tell you I want you on my side. You will be greatly appreciated. I'd even put you above the Chosen four by my side. Permitting that Sean and Zell play ball with you."

Andrew let a single tear fall from his face while clenching his fist. He stared into the woman's eyes.
"I KNOW you're aren't HER, but I'm so sorry for not saving you mom. I stay awake at night and think back to that day. It haunts me like a ghost. I miss you so much."

Deity cackled with pleasure.

"Empty words at this point my boy. I can get you back your family though. I do promise this. You know where I will be."

The man snapped his fingers and the woman pointed the gun at her own head and pulled the trigger.

"Oh. Oh my. That must've been hard to see happen... you couldn't save her again? By my count that's twice someone you've opposed has killed a woman wearing that face. What a strong boy she raised. I ALMOST CAN'T CONTAIN MY LAUGHTER."

Andrew's eyes flickered a gold and white a few sparks of fire began to form around him. The temperature of the room began to raise. The Patriots teeth gritting. "I'm going to stop you."

"Maybe..... but not today." Deity quickly fired an energy blast Andrew was able to dodge the brunt of before only taking it to the shoulder. It certainly burned. It caused him to spin before skidding into a wall.

Leaping up quickly the man was gone. He walked over to the woman with his mother's face and closed her eyes. He then leaped back up to the roof. Only time would tell what Deimos would do. The kid said he could take down the chopper, he believed em. He stood watching the guards getting into the chopper. It took off and it was now up to his partner.

Concealed in the cloud cover, Deimos stayed a good distance away from the building, confident in his ability to close the distance. He pulls himself upright, secondary wings dissenting to keep himself stationary as he assesses the sun, his shadow casting behind him rather than directly into the building. If he dove onto the chopper as soon as it took off, he’d only succeed in collapsing it into another building. Last thing he wanted was more collateral than there needed to be, he was already destroying a helicopter.


Then the moment he’d been waiting for, the chopper pulls away off the helipad and into the air, making it’s great escape it seems. With a snort Deimos’s cloud begins to glow with the eerie blue nuclear light as the silhouette of his dorsal scales begins to alight from tail to horn. He gives a heavy hoist of fully opened wings to orient into a free fall dive into the streets below, wings tucked against his side using his weight to gain speed, but seeming to be diving into a few blocks away as he descends below the skyline. The wind whistles against his scales with a loud ringing as he quickly extends his wings when even with the third floor of the buildings he’d squeezed himself beneath. The wake of his wings flattened nearby trees and sent cars skidding to the emptied sidewalks as he pulled himself out of his dive right under the chopper and slammed into it from below.

The steel gives as a fourteen ton serpent hits it, his front and hind legs digging into the sides with the sickening groan of metal as talons tear into it. The impact sends the dragon and chopper higher into the air, well past the highest building, giving Deimos the liberty to expand his wings to their full span. He beats his wings down heavily to keep control of the chopper, but finds it much heavier than the flimsy news chopper he’d caught in Chicago. He gives a harsh hiss between his teeth as he raises his head into the chopper blades. The blades slam into the side of his head, deflected from the jugular by his armored fans at the side of his jaw, but they did lacerate a deep cut just below his right eye. Blood and dragon scale clamor into the streets below as Deimos moves to clamp his crackling teeth down into the rotor, ripping it from the top of the chopper. He readjusts his grip to hold onto the top of the helpless chopper, before dropping his lower jaw down to breathe a beam of radiation onto the tail, just behind the cockpit, searing it clean off and setting it falling toward the streets as well.

With a snarl Deimos snaps his teeth closed, keeping the paired down chopper in the air relatively easily as his spine continues to glow with trapped radiation. He begins the easy decent, trying to juggle keeping control of their declining altitude with the massive weight he bore before the door to the cockpit suddenly rolled open and a man with a gun leans out and begins to fire at him. Deimos growls as one bullet pierces a softer bit of flesh just behind his shoulder and jerks in surprise, the man losing his balance and tumbling down toward earth.

Deimos panics, ducking his head down and locking his jaw down over the falling man as quickly as he could. The taste of blood filled his mouth, as did the horrible taste of burning flesh as radiation continued to crackle along in arcs from tooth to tooth. The dragon did the only thing he could think of, as if he continued his grip on the man he’d only succeed in giving him radiation poisoning akin to the demon core. He throws his head up into the air, tossing him like a ragdoll and jerks his muzzle away. Deimos dispatches the last of his breath weapon into the sky in the opposite direction, as hard and fast as he could. It was an awesome display of the sheer terror a nuclear creature could impose on the world… but luckily it was over quickly enough for Deimos to catch the man in his jaw again just as he was level with the chopper’s cockpit. He screamed, flailing as his flesh was scorched along the line of tooth marks from the first unintentionally hard bite, ribs shattered from Deimos having to be relatively rough with him to avoid turning him into nuclear waste and now he was impaled again on Deimos’s backwards facing teeth.

If only Deimos could tell him the more he tried to pull away, the more damage he’d do to himself. Eventually the decent is over, The dragon lands the gutted chopper onto the ground with ease and spits the severely wounded man out into police care. The cultists move to exit the chopper, raising their guns at first, only for Deimos to let out a dominating roar at them. The intimidation display was enough for them to not take that fight.

Satisfied the police could handle the arrests, the dragon runs his clawed fingers across his lacerated cheekbone, still spilling blood from both his face and from just behind his shoulder. The bullet didn’t hurt so bad, it was really more of the surprise that got him, but damn his face hurt. Just as news crews turn up, the dragon straightens, wings extending to block out the waning sun as he takes to the skies. No way in hell was he sticking around for this.

Thus he was gone.
------

Deimos folds his wings up in the suburban backyard as he stretches his aching back. Even in his human form, his face had one hell of a cut from the edge of his nose almost to his ear, trailing along his cheekbone. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it looked while he was a dragon and the bleeding had stopped, but the bruising was beginning to show at the edges and long his side where he’d been shot. He sheds his shirt, using it to press against his face as he pushes open the back door.

“Hey mom, Do you have any band aids… like the really big ones?”