A Dragon Among Snakes

Lord Drakkon 

The evil Power Ranger persona of Hector stays leaning on a wall, listening to everything that he can in this hideout of Hydra. First time that he so blatantly stood in this situation.

He can feel the agents keeping an eye on him in the most diverse ways: personally, cameras… There are even some guys wearing camouflage suits. Pretty advanced thing, and he is surprised that S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't have something similar.

Probably because Hydra used their people inside to take it first, and erase the existence of not only this, but all kinds of cool and useful technologies, weapons, and even manpower.

'It seems S.H.I.E.L.D will need to be restructured from scratch…' He thinks 'My powers will allow me to easily separate the wheat from the chaff, but a symbol will need to be erected to signal the change of a time. Sorry, Fury… You will need to retire when the responsibility of this huge security breach falls on your shoulders. Don't worry, I will put someone reliable in your place… A summon of mine, of course.'

While he is planning the downfall of those two organizations that stay on opposite sides of the moral compass, Ophelia finally leaves the room where she is contacting that unknown person and approaches Lord Drakkon.

"..." She remembers him of Shego.

Green being her prominent color, the dark lipstick, the long hair, and the bangs that sometimes cover one of her eyes… She doesn't have Shego's green skin, but the two are similar enough that it justifies the fact that Shego almost came to this world with a background close to this woman.

'One of the two characters is inspired by the other.' He deduces. They are simply that similar.

"Lord Drakkon…" She greets him with a smirk, getting too close while cocking her hip.

"Nazi Snake Lady." He greets in return. Rebuffing her attempts at seduction by being obnoxious.

Her lips twitched, but she kept the curve of her smile up. "If you stay with us, you will discover that we long disconnected with the nazist ideology."

"Good for you, discrimination based on things people can't control is dumb." He says in a flat tone

"Yes, what matters is power… it doesn't matter your race, gender, ethnicity, or age." She continues, speaking in a strong tone "Even more now that we know the dangers out there. The human race needs to quickly unite! And we, the people with power, have the responsibility and duty to unify and command the planet to progress before it's too late."

Her speech makes a little sense, Lord Drakkon would agree with 50% of it. Obviously, she is leaving out the part of their extreme and cruel actions, and how they are not even trying to be reasonable in their fight "for progress".

And the small detail that their plan is for them to monopolize all power, and hence lead humanity with undisputed authority.

"Words are beautiful, but your actions are not that impressive." Lord Drakkon calls on her bullshit "And your results are even more pathetic."

Now her smile falters.

"..."

"..."

A tense silence stretches for a good minute. Lord Drakkon's emotionless mask hides whatever expression he is showing on his face.

Noticing her disadvantage in this staredown, Ophelia tries to defuse the situation, acting in a conciliatory way "You will need to stay with us and see for yourself then." She puts her hand on his chestpiece, over the dragon symbol.

"That's what I pretend." He nods strongly. "Everyone can change, and I also don't agree with most of those heroes! If you are good, good! But if you're evil, I will take care of you! Like the hero of justice that I am!" Lord Drakkon strikes a Power Ranger pose.

"..." Ophelia thinks that, albeit eccentric and even annoying, she can deal with this wannabe hero.

And obviously, all of this is simply Hector giving her the characteristics necessary to infiltrate Hydra. He can't look that smart and uncontrollable.

If he easily fell for her tricks, it would be suspicious. Creating a dynamic where neither trusts the other is ironically more reliable than any other approach.

It's a dangerous game of control, but it goes well with the situation.

"I feel that we can accomplish great things together~" She breathes sultrily "I like the green by the way." She compliments the details of his suit while running her fingers through it suggestively

"I like green too…" 'Shego, not you…'

Ignorant of his thoughts, she smirks and turns around. "Follow me, Lord Drakkon."

"..." His helmet hides his eyes looking at her swaying backside, but even so, he controls himself because he knows that women can feel the male gaze. It's a passive skill. 'Why are evil women usually so hot… I still blame Batman for my tastes'.

Ophelia guides Lord Drakkon through the hideout, avoiding any important place, of course. As a newcomer, Lord Drakkon doesn't have the clearance to know too much.

Compartmentalization is a basic guideline in any spy organization, and Hydra goes far beyond. Even someone like Ophelia, an executive-level character and leader of a whole group inside Hydra, doesn't know how many other executives, projects, and even bases there out there.

It said that if a head is cut, another two will take its place… But it is more like even if a head is cut, it will not affect the whole. You need to kill all heads at the same time.

'But there must be a Main Head… Who can be? There are so many options… Red Skull? Zola?' Lord Drakkon muses.

He will not act against Hydra before he finds the Main Head.

But there's another truth related to the way Hydra does things, a weakness… A very divided organization is bound to have conflicts of interest. He would bet his morpher that Ophelia herself has no loyalty to most of the 50% of the whole Hydra, and if she could, she would take over it.

That's why they brainwash people.

But people on her level are not brainwashed, so they must be constantly fighting for power… Inner conflicts. He can use that. Maybe he can even destroy Hydra from the inside.

Cutting a head is ineffective, huh? What about poisoning it?

"Our meeting was very coincidental… Maybe it was destiny. It will be a waste if we don't work together." Ophelia continues to talk, but Lord Drakkon only keeps his silence.

Destiny? He almost scoffed… He was the one who manipulated the events to make that they coincidentally met while he was fighting that giant monster. He, noticing her at that moment, was indeed not planned, he was only playing around beating a giant monster, but everything after that was on his hands.

"It is what I want, but others from Hydra are not that easily convinced…" 

"..." 'Here we go.'

He immediately sees through the tactic, using the name of faceless people to give him some test, putting him to work… And at the same time, acting like she was his ally to create a bond of trust.

He would never fall for that, but the persona of Lord Drakkon maybe will. So he doesn't comment on her bullshit and let her talk.

"Go straight to the point… What is the mission?" Lord Drakkon scoffs. He is making sure to show certain traits in this persona: straightforwardness, a certain arrogance, self-righteousness… Things she thinks she can exploit. "But I warn you that I will not kill someone who doesn't deserve it." He says, playing the corrupted hero, the one with a strange moral compass, and a little hypocrite.

They finally reach a room with different people from the normal agents. The snake-themed villains make it pretty easy that those people are the Serpent Society, that Ophelia, as Viper, is the actual leader.

Lord Drakkon even side-glanced a woman with short red hair, whom his brain remembers as a potential Sinthea Schmidt, the Red Skull's daughter.

'Maybe the Red Bald is really alive. Or was resurrected…'

"It will be on your hands if you kill someone. I just want you to rescue one of our agents." She smiles

"An agent?" He looks around the dozen Hydra agents working, all of them in their green suits with round goggles. No trace of individuality. "What is so special about this agent in particular?"

"He is one of ours. Why should we not rescue him? We care about our people here." She lies as easily as she breathes.

"Commendable." He nods, like he ate on her bullshit. "And what is the catch?"

"He is being held by the Russians in a high-security base." She says

"Easy enough…" 'Normal agent my ass…'

"I like your confidence." Ophelia gives him a smile.

But someone disagrees "I don't." A burly woman stands and walks to Lord Drakkon, trying to intimidate him with her size. She is even taller than he, with a head full of blonde hair like a mane.

He can also put a name to the face… Anaconda, he remembers.

"Are you really giving the mission to rescue Agent Cole to this nobody?" She spits while talking with Ophelia. Despite putting herself in front of him, she acts like he is not there.

"It will be a good test, and I think he is pretty capable." Ophelia answers.

'What an obvious power play…' Lord Drakkon thinks while ignoring everything for now.

The open discussion about the mission in front of those guys, the sudden animosity. Ophelia defending him… All of this is just a little play.

Eidolon would have ignored this, but Lord Drakkon is a little different.

"Then testing him with something else, like sending him to fetch a ball or something! This clown has to put a lot of work in before he can even be considered a low-level agent!" Anaconda says while grabbing Lord Drakkon's head, trying to emasculate him.

"..." He keeps himself straight as an arrow, only the two(and the most perceptible ones) noticed that her attempts to move him are futile. He is rooted in place. She tries to play it off, but that is the moment he decides to escalate things. "You let it fall on the floor…" He comments in an eerily calm tone.

"Huh?" BAM "Guh!" A punch in the gut later, Anaconda is kneeling on the ground vomiting.

"...the contents of your stomach, I mean." He continues in a dangerous voice, now he is the one looking down on her. "Go on, get them." Bam And he stomps on her head, making her dive face-first into her own vomit. He even moves his foot a little, losing her hair like a mop.

"..." The display of sudden brutality made everyone on edge. Some even stood up in defense of their friend, like Fer-de-Lance, Princess Python, Coachwhip, and Sin.

The group of women surrounds Lord Drakkon, their eyes screaming murder.

"So many snake ladies… it seems that I will need to be more specific." He comments and address Ophelia "Green Snake Nazi Lady, please tell them to back off, as I hero I don't want to hurt women." He says hypocritically.

But he, at least, had the decency of removing his foot from Anaconda's head.

"And you just punched a woman?" Ophelia asks with a raised eyebrow

"What, that was a woman?" Lord Drakkon seems surprised while looking down to check on Anaconda.

"..."

"Oh, sorry, Lady! What have I done??" He immediately goes to help her to her feet.

The thing is, he needs to be different from Eidolon. The black-clad hero's iconic "gender equality" ideals are known widely around the world. Eidolon is not apologetic about it, Lord Drakkon can be a little, despite being much less honest. Another difference from the other hero persona.

While everyone is flabbergasted by his weird actions, he guides muscly Anaconda to sit and goes back to his place like nothing happened.

The people who are about to attack him awkwardly don't know what to do now.

"Girls, sit." Ophelia helps to clear the strange mood. "At least you proved that you are weak. Let's get over it already." Once again, she acts like she is on his side.

"Then what about I go now?" Lord Drakkon suggests

"Without preparation?"

"Preparations are useless against a strong fist." He declares confidently. Almost arrogant. Eidolon is famous for the motto of "always being prepared" so saying something like this is a good way to be different from his other persona.

"Okay then, I'm gonna arrange the ride."

"Hm, let me go alone… Just give me a very fast jet that you are not gonna miss." 

"..."

......…..

Third Person P.O.V.

It's cold in Russia. An obvious statement, but one that is held particularly true on this specific part of the continental-seize country. It's only smart that they would create a hidden base in a place with the least amount of people and very hard to get to.

So, very north in the country, sits a base that is the same time a secret research facility and at the same time a prison. The two things don't go well together with Human Rights, by the way.

But more than 10 kilometers high in the air, in the Stratosphere, a jet slowly aligns with this secret base.

"You even gave him a stealth jet." Sinthea Schmidt, aka Sin, comments, watching the screen together with Ophelia and the rest of the Serpent Society.

The snake-themed evil group is formed with more than a dozen executive members, like Sidewinder, the original leader of Serpent Society before Ophelia takes over and absorbs it into Hydra, and keeps to himself. His loyalties are obviously dubious, but Ophelia doesn't care when he still has his uses. Keeping him alive while slowly shifting the loyalty of his people.

It could even be said that Serpent Society is divided into two: the people more loyal to Ophelia and the others more loyal to Sidewinder. Funny enough, the division happens in gender, too. The women follow the Viper while the men follow the original leader.

Sidewinder is keeping up with this situation because, beyond being humbled by Ophelia, he also wants to take over Hydra eventually. It's all a convoluted scheme inside a scheme, each waiting for the other to show weakness before striking, like a snake.

Now, Sidewinder is very curious about this new "toy" Ophelia got, Lord Drakkon. Around him, Death Adder; a reptilian meta, Cottonmouth; a guy that has a strong jaw, King Cobra; his second in command, Rattler, Boomslang, Bushmaster, and Rock Python also watch the screens to see how Lord Drakkon will go.

The women are surrounding not only Ophelia, but also Sin. No one knows this, but Ophelia and Sin are together in a scheme to take over Hydra entirely, using the redhead's parentage. The group, comprised of Anaconda, Coachwhip, Asp, Black Mamba, Diamondback, and Fer-de-Lance is together on this.

The division is obvious to anyone seeing the scene.

"I'm curious to see what he can do… And it's only a jet. No loss, even if he fails." Ophelia answers Sin's question with a small smile on her lips.

"You have a surprising amount of faith in someone you just met." Sin eyes the green-clad woman carefully.

"No harm in telling you, I got my hands on some exclusive footage of him fighting a hero of the Avengers, and he really doesn't disappoint." Ophelia takes a drink while talking, "And I like mysterious and dangerous men." She smiles coyly.

"..." Sin scoffs "As long as he doesn't bring any trouble."

"Don't worry, I know how to make bad boys behave~"

While they are having that small talk, Lord Drakkon, who was piloting the jet, suddenly makes a very sharp descent.

Everyone noticed that and frowned.

"Is he really doing that?"

"Drakkon, you are losing altitude too fast." Ophelia says in the comms

"I know, I'm the one piloting." He answers "And is Lord Drakkon. Don't shorten it, 'Lord' is part of the name."

"So if you become a lord, you would be called Lord Lord Drakkon?" Sin asks with a smirk.

"Good question... But that would never happen because I don't want to be a lord, king, an emperor or whatever… I'm a hero!" He answers while still keeping going full descent, reaching maximum vertical speed.

"You will be a kamikaze if you continue going down like this, you are already on their scans. They are gonna shoot you down." Ophelia warns.

He scoffs "That is the difference between snakes and a dragon… Presentation!!" And he cuts the communication.

"..."

It doesn't take long for the weapons on the russian base to point to the sky and start shooting Lord Drakkon. 

"He is not gonna make it." Rattler says.

Because Hydra is Hydra, they have footage of the whole action, from inside the russian base and even from some distance. They saw rockets and guns, artillery shoot at Lord Drakkon like their life depended on it, the sky filled with brilliant dots while the bullets of 155 mm fly high in a stream.

It almost looks like the celebration of a new year, filled with fireworks, but Lord Drakkon weaves through the hellish sky with practiced ease.

His jet moves to the side, loses speed, spins, and performs every kind of maneuver to avoid the barrage of bullets… It's almost a dance while he dodges everything. At a certain point, two homing missiles are closing in on him, but he was able to make the two hit each other while he kept advancing.

"What are you saying?" Diamondback asks sarcastically while they watch the guy showing off.

"What is he? Top Gun?" Someones jokes.

"He is not stopping…" Another warns.

"He is not gonna do what I think, right?"

And true to everyone's thoughts, Lord Drakkon doesn't even hesitate for a second before diving nose-first into the base. 

Boom 

He hits one of the turrets, destroying it completely. The high fire and the sound of sirens fill the base, soldiers move quickly to the place of the crash, while the base enters the highest level alert.

While everyone is tense, Lord Drakkon simply walks out of the fire like he is taking a stroll, the flames lick him ineffectively, reflecting on his red visor.

"Now… Where are they keeping the guy again?" He asks himself, remembering the instructions that he received pre-mission.

While he was musing, russian soldiers surrounded him with their guns raised, at a distance, tanks and cars also created a barricade.

He ignores the russian shouts of "freeze", "hands in the air", and "surrender". The Russians are not playing around either, because he didn't comply with the orders for three seconds before they opened fire. He didn't even make any sudden move before being assaulted by dozens of thousands of bullets and even some RPGs.

"..." Unfortunately, to the attackers, they could have very well thrown their bullets at him with their own arm strength. They did nothing, bouncing off Lord Drakkon's power ranger suit harmlessly. The RPGs also did nothing.

Lord Drakkon does the courtesy to wait for his turn before finally attacking, then the enemies go to reload, he dashes forward! The movement is strong enough to extinguish the flames behind him.

He disappears from his place, a sonic boom echoing in everyone's ears, then he reappears behind the enemy lines while striking a pose. After he reappeared, time appears to start running again, and every soldier is seemingly hit by invisible attacks, being knocked out, and their guns are destroyed.

He then goes to destroy the tanks, quickly moving to them and literally punching through the reinforced steel or cutting wheels and weapons with his Saba.

He made quick work, and less than a minute later, he is alone, standing on the battlefield, making a power ranger pose while all the enemies groan on the ground.

"Victory!" He declares.

Back at Hydra's base, the Serpent Society watched Lord Drakkon instantly deal with the russian soldiers.

"He is fast." One of them admits.

"Is any of you confident that you can take him?" Ophelia asks the room, and despite their huge ego, no one is brave enough to give an answer "And all of you against him?" She asks

The idea that they need to gang up against him irked some, so King Cobra answers "He is not invincible… A good blade of adamantium in the right place and he dies like everyone else."

"You will need to be faster than him to do that." Asp says

"Not if is an assassination."

"But that would destroy the initial question…"

While they are arguing, Lord Drakkon starts moving to where they kept the prisoners, but a sound attracts his attention and makes him stop.

Looking over his shoulder, he sees a group of five heroes appearing through a dark portal, two instantly land on the ground while three remain floating. All staring at him.

"Oh, what fast response…" he says sarcastically.

The Winter Guard appearing so fast is obviously not coincidental. He can easily deduce that it is the work of Ophelia.

Just another one of her games. By using her contacts inside this russian base, or maybe the ones closer to the top brass of the government, she leaked the information that someone would attack this place.

Hector needs to admit that it is a smart move. She is putting Lord Drakkon to fight Russia's official heroes, to take a look not only his abilities but to test this new team created in response to the Avengers.

She is also branding him as the enemy of Russia, and maybe all heroes… branding him a villain, diminishing his options, and potentially tying him to her. All of this while she just lies back and watches. No risks, full of rewards…

Obviously, she doesn't know that she is playing with fire. Despite playing the game very well, hector can, at any given time, flip the board and simply kill her.

But he shrugs and decides to humor her. That's why he is making other identities, he doesn't care that Lord Drakkon is seen as a villain. He is also a little curious about the Winter Guard.

So he just squares up his shoulders and gets ready to battle, but not before playing the role of "Corrupt Hero" and acting reasonably unreasonable.

"Can you guys look away for a minute? I'm just here to save a friend of an acquaintance…" He says, knowing very well that they will spit on his proposition.

The one that answers is the "Russian Captain America", Vanguard. Wearing a red suit very similar to his American counterpart, and a shield on his arm, the probable leader of the Russian hero's team says in a commanding tone.

"After what you have done, there will be only your capture!" 

"I don't think you all have the capabilities to do that…"

"Surrender Intruder." Ursa Major, a meta that can turn into a bear, says in a gruffy tone. His russian accent is even more prominent than Vanguard's.

'A bear… So Russian… Do the Avengers have someone who can turn into a bald eagle?' "Would you surrender if someone just said so?" Lord Drakkon asks with some humor in his tone.

"So it seems we need to show our strength…" The one who said that is floating while wearing a red and bulky power armor. Crimson Dynamo, the counterpart of Iron Man. The armor looks heavy and slow to Hector's eyes, showing that it is not on the same level as Stark's.

"I warned you guys…" Lord Drakkon shakes his head.

The first to attack is one of the two women floating beside Crimson Dynamo. 

Fantasma is a dark-haired sorceress wearing a very provocative purple leotard. With a wave of her hands, spheres of energy oozing with electricity appear around her and fly at Lord Drakkon.

Lord Drakkon blurs, leaving behind afterimages while side-stepping the spheres that explode in contact with the ground.

The rest of the Winter Guard will not stay idle while he slowly, but surely, approaches them while dodging.

Vanguard and Ursa Major run at him, while Crinsom Dynamo fly around to send blasts of energy, but from a different angle. The fifth member is the only one who doesn't make any move, but her eyes are staring at Lord Drakkon without blinking.

Ready to counter-attack, Lord Drakkon raises his fists to easily dispatch of the two melee combatants, but he pauses.

Turning fast to Fantasma, his red visor stares at the sorceress while he says "My mind can't be that easily penetrated by your mediocre telepathy!" And he kicks the ground at her.

He literally kicks a chunk of the ground, as big as a small car, at her. The rock made her pause her efforts to attack his mind and defend with a purple forcefield.

A laser from Crinsom Dynamo approaches Lord Drakkon while he looks distracted, but Lord Drakkon is never distracted. Without even looking, he removes his Dragon Dagger from his waist and blocks the laser, reflecting it to hit Ursa Major, sending the huge man transformed into a bear flying.

At the same time, the Power Ranger spins on himself and delivers a powerful kick at Vanguard.

Boom

The red-clad hero puts his shield to stop the powerful kick and…

"Hm?" Really blocks it. A shockwave has erupted, and the ground breaks around the two combatants, but Vanguard didn't bulge. 'Oh, his power was better than expected.'

Vanguard doesn't have Steve Rogers' adamantium shield, but he compensates for that with his power. He is a meta with the power of a Repulsion Field, so he can create a field around his shield that repels all electromagnetic, kinetic, and gravitonic energy.

A very impressive power that can be a counter to many strong heroes and villains. Eidolon didn't know the limits, though, so he never actively went to copy it. But it seems the upper limit is higher than predicted. 'If he is creative with it, he can even fly…Flying Brick type shit.'

Unknown to Lord Drakkon, Vanguard himself is very surprised too. With his powers, he was expecting the enemy to be sent flying in response to his attack, after all, he can repel anything.

But Lord Drakkon remains stuck in place, which means that he resisted not only Vanguard's repulsion force but also his own attack.

Still with his foot on Vanguard's shield, Lord Drakkon's comment, "You are a problematic one, huh?" He then uses the shield as a foothold and jumps to change targets.

He immediately arrives above Crimson Dynamo, his body upside down and delivering a powerful bicycle kick on the crimson power armor.

Boom Crash

The armor falls with a heavy sound, creating a small crater. 

Lord Drakkon barely has the time to stabilize himself before more magic attacks are onto him. He is still in the air, seemingly with nowhere to escape while he is surrounded by attacks, but like once Hector said… he will never fear simplistic magic attacks like those.

Swish Swish Swish Swish

It's only a different kind of energy projection after all, so he easily slashes through them with his Saba. 

Hiding the fact that he can walk in the air, he waits till his feet hit the ground before doing a Soru and reappearing behind Fantasma. He is a little beneath her because she is floating, but there is no problem.

He grabs her ankle and throws her at Vanguard.

"Parry this!" 

The red hero can't just use his repulsion powers in a companion, so instead he opens his arms and takes the brunt of the throw to save Fantasma.

Lord Drakkon obviously will not let such a show of kindness go unrewarded… So he appears behind Vanguard, Dragon Dagger in hand, and pointing at the hero's back.

It looks like a mortal attack, only he knows that he is holding back, but such display is enough to make the fifth member of the Winter Guard make a move.

Darkstar is the sister of Vanguard, after all, she would not let her brother be hurt. She is also a Darkforce conduit, being able to tap into the energies of the Darkforce dimension. 

A dark screen appears in front of Lord Drakkon, his arm going through this dark screen like it is a window, then more screens appear around him, and dark tendrils appear from it, surrounding his body and binding him.

He struggles a little, but darkness envelops his body in a thick cocoon before starting to shrink till it disappears.

"Huff Done." Laynia Petrovna, aka Darkstar, releases a sigh of relief after banishing Lord Drakkon. She tried not to show it, but he really put up a fight.

"Where did you send him?" Vanguard asks.

"The Darkforce Dimension. He will not be coming back." His sister answers.

"We still have questions to ask him…" Ursa Major, that was sent flying, returns just in time to see the end of the fight. "But you shouldn't bring him back now. Let's plan it well… Call for Chernobog and Perun, so that we can contain him."

The members of the Vanguard around him showed varied expressions on the mention of those two members, especially when the name "Chernobog" was said.

But they don't have time to voice their thoughts before a shocking scene unfolds before their eyes.

In the air, a small, dark light appears, piercing their eyes. Then it expands in a slit before the point of a blade appear and literally slice the empty air! Lord Drakkon's torso then emerges from the other side of the rift in space.

"Very impressive… You all pass!" He says in a voice that does not show any enmity, but his next actions are the exact opposite.

He advanced at them immediately, his red visor leaving a red trail, and he ended the fight fast this time.

......…

A man is being kept in a lone cell. He is on the corner, keeping his ears attentive to the loud sounds outside. Something is happening, and he needs to be on high alert for it.

Suddenly, the door of his cell is sliced into five small parts, and a man wearing a costume stands there.

"Cole, I presume…" The man says, his voice deep beneath his helmet, red visor impassive, staring at Cole in an unnerving way.

"Who are you?" Cole does not deny or confirm anything.

Lord Drakkon doesn't care about him. He simply walks up to the man, who is ready to fight him, grabs his collar, and puts his face really close to his ear…

"Hail Hydra…" He whispers, making Cole's eyes widen, and he visibly relaxes.

"..." After Lord Drakkon steps back, Cole slowly nods.

"It will be weird, but follow me." Then Lord Drakkon literally cuts a path through space to escape.

......…

"Well, I guess we don't need to test his prowess anymore." Ophelia says, satisfied with herself.

The Serpent Society just watched Lord Drakkon curbstomp five members of the Winter Guard. The battle was quick but fierce.

Hector made sure to hide any similarity to Eidolon's fighting style.

He used Dragon and Sabo's Dragon Claw style from One Piece, to keep on theme, and to give an aggressive look to his persona. Eidolon mostly works with counters and precise strikes, minimizing effort and damage. So no one would think the two are the same person.

Nothing like Lord Drakkon that grabbed Ursa Major's muzzle, his fingers like three dragon claws, and dragged his head through the ground before suplexing the bear. 

Or how he dismantled Crimson Dynamo armor, leaving behind only scraps.

Let's not talk about how he dislocated and broke some bones of Vanguard before his sister made the call to retreat, taking all the Winter Guard members with her with teleportation.

"He didn't kill anyone." Sin comments, she looks deep in thought.

"I guess it is on point with his personality. He fancies himself a hero, acting like he is teaching them how to be proper heroes, even though he is only beating them." Ophelia comments, and before she can say more, a ping echoes on the comms.

"Come get me, I already sent you the coordinates." Lord Drakkon's voice comes through it.

"Can't you just teleport here?" She asks

"That can leave traces to track. Do you want to compromise the location of your base?" Lord Drakkon says

"Point taken." Despite being a base ready to be discarded, it's better to keep it as long as they can. It will save money. "You did a very good job, Lord Drakkon. I confess that I was worried about you when the Winter Guard showed up." Ophelia continues to lie as easily as she breathes.

"Don't be… I would never lose. Justice always prevails!" He declares self-righteouss, ignoring her bullshit.

She laughs at his antics. The two spotted smiles full of meaning, hiding from each other.

.........

Helena P.O.V.

I drive my stealth bike through the streets of Detroit, the bike is closed like a capsule, so I can't feel the wind on my face and hair, but that is something that I can easily give up for everything else.

This little beauty can go full invisible, auto-pilot, and even fly.

After some turns, she enters a dead-end alley and does not even slow down. The metal grade blocking her path beeps and opens to her, and after that, a wall at her side does the same.

I park inside the wall, which closes after the elevator starts going up.

This building is still disguised as the closed restaurant that I never bothered to open. Different from Shego, I'm not that eager to be a boss or anything.

But I don't want to live off Hector forever.

There are other options, of course. Instead of making the building a five-star restaurant, I can use the first floor as a more family restaurant(or the communal area) and use the other floors to make a modest apartment complex.

I can charge very cheaply, and I will have a source of income without the need to do much work. The area is very good too, so I have options. And despite not wanting to depend on him, I can always use Hector's thing to reform and maintain the place.

I will have literally no work.

The elevator takes me and my bike to the secret room on the top floor. I'm already removing my clothes automatically while thinking about a little problem I was having recently.

After the enhancements provided by Hector, I'm having a little trouble with my weapon of choice. I don't want to admit it, but Hector was right when he said "crossbows cap you". It's his slang that there's not much to grow with it.

Different from a bow, anyone can pull the trigger of the crossbow, so it is an equalizer weapon, like guns. A bow can be made stronger depending on the strength of the user… Well, even the stronger crossbows Hector made are not being satisfactory anymore.

What is making it relevant is the different effects of the most varied bolts that I have. The small wrist crossbow with bolts made of hard-light constructs, or even outright lasers, is good too.

But the big boys? Well, I could very well use a sniper rifle, or a giant bow… Heck, I could very well stab people with a bolt using my own hands. I'm that strong now.

"Should I change?" I muse to myself while putting normal clothes over my now, admittedly curvier, form.

After being fully clothed, she finally noticed something on the counter that wasn't there when she left home earlier. It's some plates with food surrounded by some small force fields. A note on the side…

"If you stay late patrolling." I read. Haha, can't say that he is not attentive.

Shego doesn't have any right to complain about her boyfriend… Well, except the whole harem thing.

I disabled the small forcefield surrounding the plates with a press of a button and prepare to dig in.

"Hm~, it's still hot…" Very convenient.

After eating the very delicious meal… I'm starting to get spoiled by it, other people's food is not hitting the same. After eating, I see that is not as late as I expected, so there's a high chance that they're still reunited at Hector's house.

So I will drop by to hang around. It's not like I have any other friends… A little sad, but it's not like I have that many friends in my universe either.

A portal away, and I'm on the second floor of his house. After going through some check-ins, I'm free to go down and find them in the living room.

There's obviously Shego clinging to Hector, like the green slime she is. Rover is hanging around with the other pets, everyone munching on something. That strange devil girl with that brown skinned kid that lives inside Hector's body.

She is some kinda of biological alien weapon… Weird, but still pretty standard stuff.

The devil girl is behaving much better now, after Isabella's training. She doesn't shout or make scandals or messes… that much. But her clothes are still in disarray, and she carries herself like a wild animal, or a very grumpy house cat.

Talking about Isabella, she is sitting with an enviable grace in her spot. Sometimes she looks more like a lady than a maid.

"Good night, Helena. How was the patrol?" Hector is the first to notice me. Probably because he is aware in real time when I went through the checkpoints. Shego was waving while still clinging to him.

"Pretty tame. Real villains are appearing, but just some petty ones." I say while sitting on the couch. 

"It will only get worse from now on." He nods. "But I got a new hero, I don't know if you know him… Static Shock."

"The electric one that hovers on that board?" She has some impressions of him. A good kid in the middle of a shitty city. Not as bad as Gotham, but a place that needs a hero.

She remembers seeing him on Gotham once.

"Exactly. Go on one or two patrols with him. The guy is in another world, far from home… Maybe someone he knows can help him feel better." Hector says

"I don't know him, but okay… no problem." He likes the kid. It's not anyone that remains incorruptible in shitholes. If she remembers well, he was the only one caught in that explosion that created metas who did not become a villain. "But you need to do something to me, too."

"Okay." he agrees easily without even knowing what I am talking about "I will just take him to Edna, and then he is ready to go kick ass. But what do you want?"

"I want some better crossbows." She is not ashamed to ask. The guy is here for it.

"It capped, huh?" he smiles, and I nod. "Don't worry, I was already preparing some improvements long before you get all juiced up."

"..." I'm not even surprised at this point. 

"I have a power that allows me to put charges of my powers in objects, so I can improve weapons. There are also some magical enchantments, if it's your style. I will show it to you later."

"Me? Using magic items?" I laugh, wondering what the reaction of Constantine and Zatanna would be to this information. "I'm anxious to see what you have done."

"I cooked!" He brags 

After laughing a little, I asked "What were you talking about before I arrived?" I turn to the TV at the same time, like always, and there's some news on the screen.

Hero-related, of course, Cortana always changes the channel to what is relevant.

"Just talking about how and why I infiltrated Hydra." Hector shrugs

"So, how is being part of an evil organization?" I ask curiously

"I thought we were an evil organization…" The Nemesis girl says from her place with a disappointed face.

"Shut up, I'm a hero." Hector says to her before turning to me "Pretty normal, it's not like they are kicking puppies and sacrificing people all the time. Just an organization doing things. I think I can destroy them from the inside if I play my cards right. It's a very fractured place… That's why I decided to infiltrate them."

"I though it was because of those hot snake girls." Shego comments with a side-eye before turning to me "Him, in all his wisdom, went to the branch that has a society of hot women. And he wants me to believe that is a coincidence." She rolls her eyes.

"She was stationed in Japan because of the Yashida Clan, and I fought that giant monster there. I also discovered that a girl, who is the daughter of Red Skull, is close to her. It's only logical that I went through that route. It looks like the closest to the top." Hector defends himself. It sounds reasonable. He then looks at me and points at Shego with his thumb "She is mad because Viper looks a little like her." Then he show me an image and damn… It really looks a little like Shego.

I decide to tease him a little too "You really have a type, huh~?"

He rolls his eyes while I laugh "There's always someone similar in the world… if I'm not wrong, Bruce and Clark are a little similar too." He says. And now that he said that… "She looks like you, what is the big deal?"

"Okay, Hector… I only have one question before I let this matter rest…" Shego says, her mouth close to his ear, her fingers travelling his chest.

"Good!"

"You said that we look alike… Is she pretty?" She suddenly opens her eyes wide while putting her face very close to his, paying attention to even the micro expressions.

"..."

Be careful, Hector! It's a trap!

He pauses, going stiff for a second… "Not even close to you." He finally says

Smooth… That 300 IQ or something worked hard now.

"Good answer." Shego seems to agree, stopping playing with him, patting his head, and kissing his cheek.

"Women…" He sighs

After that, we continue to have some small talk, Hector telling us the history of the new people. He was warning us about some small telekinetic woman with a short fuse when the TV showed something… interesting.

"...for the safety of the American people, we can't allow an individual to act unilaterally, without clear partnership with the Avengers…" The president says on the screen

"Is he really doing it?" I ask, and I confess, a little shocked.

"It must be because of the rise of national superhero groups around the world." Isabella comments. Makes sense…Sometimes I forget she is smart.

"Is he really banning Eidolon from acting on America?" Shego is also shocked. "This… this.. is so dumb!"

"Hahahaha!" The Nemesis girl laughs "He is forcing you to take a side!"

Beyond her, there's another person who is laughing… Hector.

"Pfft! Hahahahahaha!" He throws his head, and his chair even falls backward, taking Shego with him. "Bad move, Mr. President. Bad move~"

I heard humor comes from the unexpected… I guess not even Hector could predict such stupidity.

"Hahahaha!" He continues to laugh like he heard the best joke in the world.

"..." Okay, it's funny.

......

A.N.:Hello there. 

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