I found a slightly less apparent location to wait for Daniel, away from the many people who couldn’t help but stare at me. While the city had expanded dramatically, so too did the number of people who had no real idea of who I was. Luckily - or unluckily, I wasn’t certain - my actual appearance wasn’t the topic of the pseudo urban legend that surrounded me. Everyone knew that I existed, and that I wasn’t quite human. Whenever I was seen, though, I was still met with the same range of responses that I’d come to expect. Surprise, excitement, wariness, and even some measures of anxiousness that bordered on fear. After all of the changes that my body had gone through, I wasn’t exactly surprised with the way people reacted.

Even so, I didn’t enjoy being a spectacle for long. As I waited, I busied myself with reports on the field, and on events that were taking place in the larger world. Basilisk had expanded, though they’d slowed their roll in recent months. The last I’d heard, an overall crackdown on various disreputable organizations had been taken care of, courtesy of their new Director of Internal Affairs. Other things, such as the current status of Adira and her ship the Wendigo were much more clear to me. They were now something of the official task-force liaison between the Legion and Basilisk’s sea-borne missions.

In the time since securing the satellite uplink, our organizations had worked together much more closely to secure our side of the continent. Thus far, though, myself and Adira hadn’t worked together in the same area, though we still kept in touch. Given all of the other missions that had cropped up, I simply didn’t have the time to go visiting for personal reasons.

As I sorted through reports, though, I did run across a few things that I found amusing. the Iron Chariots had picked up several new members, and had assorted themselves into a few interrelated groups. The Iron Storm, the Iron Giants, and the Law of Iron were all groups that the Chariots were parent to and worked with frequently. They’d become a varied and effective task force in their own right, a good thing considering the report I received from them on their last mission.

Like what myself and Domino ran across, the Iron Chariots, had discovered a number of collapsed tunnels further inland. However, the Iron Giants had been within one of the tunnels when the collapse began. No injuries had occurred, more due to the composition of their teams than anything else, but they were en route back home for repairs. Considering they’d been on back to back missions for nearly three months now, I expected them to come home for a break.

They were a driven team, though, perhaps more so than any of my other Legion teams. They were safe, too, boasting not a single member lost after Patrick, their founding member and friend of mine, had been lost. That very same loss was at the machinations of the biotic whose handiwork we looked at now, so I expected that they would be even more active from now on.

As I was reading, I noticed a vehicle approaching the pickup zone. A large hovering craft lumbered into place, settling inches above the ground with a distinct but low whirr, more similar to what a purring cat - if said cat weighed a few tons - sounded like. I smiled, walking up to the vehicle, fractal designs playing across its purple, shining hull. When the light hit it, it shifted from a rich, pearlescent purple to a deep and reflective obsidian. Hidden hardpoints that I knew were in place concealed an array of weaponry: mag weapons, a small collection of explosives, and a small laser were hidden within, enough to get out of a sticky situation with a small group of biotics if necessary. The diamond-esque construction that emulated the look of a sports car turned a lot of heads.

The driver's side window, one-way viewing only, seamlessly slid down to reveal the large, bearded man in the front seat. He wore a simple tank top with combat fatigues, though I knew he had a few more personalized defensive choices on his person that were harder to spot.

“Sup, man!” Daniel called out with a wide smile as I came around. I ignored the onlooking crowd as I came around, door sliding open and upwards to admit me entry.

As I climbed in, I clasped his outstretched hand, “Thanks for the pickup. How’s the new car treating you?”

Daniel beamed, “It’s amazing. We’re thinking about officially starting a market for them, but so far it’s just a side project me and Terry are working on.”

The door slid closed, and no sooner than it had did Daniel begin moving. I strapped myself in, more for anyone else’s safety than my own - getting thrown out of a vehicle at someone at high speeds would probably result in more damage to whatever I’d hit, rather than myself - and turned my attention to the gently glowing dashboard with purple lighting.

“How’s Terry? I haven’t seen him in… wow… weeks,” I blinked, suddenly realizing I hadn’t gone into the lab for some time.

Daniel shifted a hand back and forth, “He’s… okay? I mean, you know Terry.”

I chuckled and shook my head, “What is it this time?”

“He’s working with Yaga on some top-secret project.” Daniel scowled, “They won’t tell anyone what it is, either. There’ve got a small team, but they’re all very hush-hush about what it is.”

I blinked at that, “They won’t tell you?”

He shook his head, “Nope. Nobody, far as I can tell. They probably have it listed for you, but… Whatever it is, they’re playing it really close to the chest. Obsessively.”

I frowned, searching through the Legion’s database and finding only a few memos for me, telling me that a few new projects had information that I could look up from the Lab’s secured servers. I clicked my tongue at that, knowing that I’d been the one to insist that any truly sensitive information be confined off of any network and not referred to out of it. Given how I could access virtually anything, I had to assume that I wasn’t the only one that could. Better to just have something important entirely isolated instead.

“It’s off-grid,” I huffed, “Wanna stop by the lab?”

He pondered for a moment before shrugging, “Sure, Fran won’t be back for a few hours, at least.”

I nodded to that, knowing that the World Summit would take up a good chunk of time, not including any additional conversations Fran and Derrick might strike up with our allies abroad. I’d given them a fairly wide range of authority for the purposes of the Legion’s resources, but I doubted they’d get us into something we couldn’t handle. I trusted the pair, and as much as it was a shame that Fran wasn’t on the frontline against biotics, I trusted few as much as her with the political arena. Certainly, I wasn’t fit for it, given that I’d very nearly decided to just do whatever needed to be done, regardless of the consequences.

The debacle with Storm-Surge, the Antarctic biotic, had been the last straw for me in regards to any kind of political patience. That should never have gotten as bad as it had, and even today the effects continued to be felt.

“You alright, Matt? Lookin’ a little intense there.” Daniel’s voice cut into my brooding.

I sighed, shaking my head, “Just thinking of the ‘what ifs’ again, forget it.” I turned my gaze back to him, smirking, “So, how’s the new batch of students?”

He chuckled, “They’re hellions. I don’t think I’ve had a batch this damn aggressive in their mechs. Lots of ‘em obsessed with their mechs too.”

“Sounds like the Chariots are gonna have a lot on their hands,” I said, “Did you show them yours, yet?”

Daniel shook his head, “Nah, it was their first week. I usually see what they can come up with on their own first before showing them Dauntless. You know, it’s funny but most of the weapons I’ve got still hold their own just fine against all the fancier stuff coming out now. You hear that we’ve got laser technology working finally?”

I nodded, “Yeah, but I’m not as much of a fan as I thought I’d be.”

“Same. I mean, it cuts and burns just fine but… No boom.” He shook his head in disappointment.

“Hear anything from Alice and Richard lately?” I asked.

“Mmm, I heard they were over in Sunvilla for now, visiting Alice’s family. Oh! They’re planning on getting married, said that they liked how we did our wedding, wanted to do something similar.”

I winced, “Ah… The one I missed…”

Daniel opened his mouth for a moment before closing it. After a seconds consideration, he spoke again, “Well… Yeah man, it would have been nice to have you there but… I mean… you were literally waist deep in zombies at the time.”

“Still…”

“Dude, you gotta stop beating yourself over that stuff. I said it was fine, Fran honestly was surprised that you even took the time to video chat us at the end… Though that was disgusting, all things considered.” He shook his head.

“We all used to be covered in biotic bits and pieces, I don’t understand what the problem was.” I frowned.

He raised two fingers, “First off, I never liked that part. Second off, I’m pretty sure zombified biotics don’t decompose the same way. Sure as hell didn’t look like it.”

“Well… No, okay, that’s fair.” I paused, remembering the godawful stench too clearly thanks to my memory.

“Anyways, they’re thinking about doing a wedding ceremony, but they’re not sure exactly when. They don’t want a big blowout though, just some family and friends.” Daniel continued on before stopping for several seconds.

“What?” I glanced around confusedly, seeing and sensing nothing that might give him pause.

“Ah, I’m just thinking, y’know? How things are starting to come back to something more normal.” He said, a genuine smile on his face.

I turned away, hiding the grimace on my face, “Yeah.”

We made more small talk as we went, though I couldn’t help but linger on that line of thought. After everything was finished, I didn’t know what I could do, or more accurately what I wanted to do. I wasn’t sure if I could ever go back to a so-called “normal” way of life, I wasn’t even sure if I had any desire to, either.

After a few more minutes we pulled up to the lab complex. We moved up to the first of the scanners, one of many safety measures built in to prevent people from bringing unauthorized items on the premises. I could almost feel the tingle against my skin as they swept over me, confirming against a database what was allowed through security.

“I hate these checkpoints.” Daniel grumbled, “They take forever.”

I chuckled before sending my awareness out to the machines. Rather than override them, I provided my credentials, a process that was cleared within moments. Daniel frowned as the gate in front of us opened, as well as the steel pillars beyond it that prevented someone from smashing a vehicle through.

He looked at me, and I couldn’t help but chuckle, “Perks of being the Reaper.”

“Showoff.”