Dragonslayers

<infobox>

 <title source="name">
   <default>Dragonslayers</default>
 </title>

<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <header>Information</header> <label>Alignment</label> <label>Leader(s)</label> <label>Leader(s)</label> <label>Allies</label> <label>Allies</label> <label>Status</label> <label>Location</label> <label>First Appearance</label> <header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label> </infobox> The Dragonslayers are an unpowered criminal mercenary organization led by Saint.

Modus Operandi

The Dragonslayers were self-proclaimed watchmen of Dragon, dedicating their time closely watching and monitoring her for signs of any corruption or rampancy using a backdoor into her programming that they found treasure diving in the ruins of Newfoundland and coming upon Andrew Richter's residence and workshop, among auxiliary programs and other tools Andrew Richter made to control and, if necessary, kill his own creations. If they deemed that Dragon strays too far from her heroic intentions, they'd use this to permanently shut her down.<ref>Dragon, however, was the threat they’d been equipped to stop.  Dragon was the threat they’d had to test, to verify the dangers she posed, to get close enough to her to measure her capabilities and investigate for any hint of corruption.  Mags had left her job, because money was no longer an object, and they had a quest.

The A.I. was dangerous.  Richter’s records made it clear.  The wrong kind of corruption, involvement with the wrong kind of individual, willing to break the built-in restrictions… - Excerpt from Interlude 26.x</ref>

With the help of Teacher<ref>“I was just starting out, tracking and investigating Dragon, when I came across one of Teacher’s subjects.  He gave me my in.  Gave me the ability to learn the ins and outs of her code, like I was a genius who had a natural knack for it.  That got the Dragonslayers started.” - Excerpt from Cockroach 28.2</ref> in return for money<ref name=":0">“We didn’t.  He started off by asking us for five percent of our earnings for the first five years.  Mags, one of the Dragonslayers you’ve got in custody, she wasn’t cool with it.  Teacher was shady, clearly doing some illegal stuff.  He offered it as a freebie, we considered the issues, then decided to go for it.  Just me.  When word got out that Teacher actually had a measure of influence over the people he’d given powers to, we set up safeguards.  Only me, and I’d teach the other two what they needed to know.  Mags would double and triple check every discussion I had with Teacher, to make sure he wasn’t fucking with my head or setting me up to participate in something ugly.” - Excerpt from Cockroach 28.2</ref>, they have used these tools to great effect, being capable of outfighting and maneuvering Dragon every time they fought<ref name=":1">She was afraid of going up against the Dragonslayers again. Nine times, she had been certain she had the upper hand.  Nine times, Saint had turned the tables and trapped her.

Dragon worried she would never be able to beat Saint until she found a replacement for Andrew Richter. - Excerpt from Interlude 10.5</ref>, stealing her suits to reverse engineer and use themselves. Saint had volunteered to be put under the influence of Teacher's power. As a safety measure, the other Dragonslayers would check and double-check every conversation he had with him for any bias that Teacher's power might introduce.<ref name=":0" />

After the PRT let Saint inspect the Birdcage's equipment<ref>“And if you leave, the assumption is that we’ll be left without Dragon’s ability to maintain every system and device she’s created for us.  The PRT without a Birdcage, without our computer systems or database, without the specialized grenade loadouts or the containment foam dispensers.”

“An unfortunate consequence,” Defiant said.

“Not a concern at all,” the Chief Director replied.

There was a pause.  Dragon glanced at Defiant.

“No?” Defiant asked.

“No.  We’ve been in contact with an individual who has a proven track record with Dragon’s technology.  He feels equipped, eager, almost, to step into Dragon’s shoes should she take a leave of absence.”

“Saint,” Defiant said.  “You’re talking about the leader of the Dragonslayers.  Criminal mercenaries.” - Excerpt from Interlude 20.x</ref><ref>“He speaks when we give him something to say,” Teacher said.  “But I may have been too eager to find a way of contacting the outside world, and I’ve irritated him.  Saint explained what happened.  The PRT showed him Dragon’s equipment, asked if he could commandeer it, and Saint found an opportunity to insert a discreet backdoor.  He has a channel in, a way to observe, but our channel out is poor at best.” - Excerpt from Interlude 22.y</ref>, Saint was able to pass on messages with Teacher inside the Birdcage<ref>“Good, good.”  Teacher led Lung to one TV in the row.  “Trickster?”

Lung arched an eyebrow.  Trickster… the name rung a bell.  It didn’t matter.

“Connect,” Teacher said.

Trickster reached up to the power button on the television, then began a sequence of turning it on and off, with very specific pauses.  A code.

The sequence was still going on when Teacher said, “Stop.  Leave it on.”

The screen showed a face, the image grainy, flickering.  The face had a tattoo of a cross on it.

“Lung, meet Saint,” Teacher said. - Excerpt from Interlude 22.y</ref> for his eventual release.<ref>He didn’t want to help Jack succeed, but this would serve a double purpose.  Teacher believed that the Birdcage would become a critical resource if the crisis reached critical levels, and he had the tools he needed to assume control of the most vital and dangerous players. - Excerpt from Interlude 26.x</ref>

In spite of their best efforts, they were nothing but pawns for Teacher to use for his goals.<ref>“Enough.  I’d bet the son was even a red herring.  Maybe someone tampered with the data Saint had on Teacher, maybe not.  The old equipment, the plans during the years he was interacting with Saint, all of it was serving a purpose.  Or double purposes.  Multiple plans at once, from different angles.  Helps him put pieces together towards different agendas, builds up his rep, and makes Saint think Teacher’s invested in this stuff, when he’s really keeping quiet about his true desire.” - Excerpt from Cockroach 20.2</ref>

Structure

Saint, as the person who found Richter's contingency, the main driver of the Dragonslayer's purpose and benefactor of Teacher's power, was the leader of the Dragonslayers.

Members

Name:	Status:
Saint	Captured
Mags	Dead
Dobrynja	Captured

Equipment

The Dragonslayers co-opted several of Dragon's machines and used them for their own work. The machines used to defend Teachers base from the attack of the heroes were the following:

• Victory I (The Winged Angel): Piloted by Saint. A machine that has enormous wings, that is capable of creating force-fields.<ref>The winged suit unfurled its wings as it twisted in the air, more acrobatic than the other two. Each wing was made of slats, top and bottom ends set at diagonals, each slat connected to the next, getting larger as they got further from the main suit. With the unfurling, the wings glowed, and the slats replicated with projected images, each added slat taller than the last, with the final segments punching into the ceiling and floor both, right by the door. Our group scattered, cut in half by the image. The glow of the projected wings faded a second or two after the ‘impact’, but the damage remained, and a combination of smoke and concrete dust served to cloud our vision. - Excerpt from Dying 15.5</ref>
• Michael III (The Warrior Angel): Piloted by Mags. This mech carried an enormous sword that was capable of shooting a beam of energy.
• The Isaiah (The Halo Angel): Piloted by Dobrynja‎‎. A mech with a halo that shot anything that fell within a certain range of it.

All three machines use multidimensional tinker-tech extensively to keep themselves afloat and are equipped with multitudes of redundancies and decoy parts, that allow them to feint defeats and weather non-critical damage.<ref name="15.xII">Interlude 15.x II</ref>

History

In 2005, the Dragonslayers started out as treasure hunters making a living diving for personal effects and valuables until they happened upon Richter's contingencies, after which they formally started calling themselves the Dragonslayers.

Shortly after, Saint came into contact with Teacher, who gave him a power to make him understand Dragon's code in exchange for a fraction of their earnings.<ref name=":0" /> This became more complicated after Dragon triggered and her code underwent major mutations that went beyond his comprehension.<ref>“We were dealing with harder jobs, more capes in general out there, and our gear was getting beaten up.  Fine, okay, we can deal.  Until Dragon changed.  All at once, I couldn’t read her code on the same level.  Like gears changing on a bike.”

“May ninth, 2006,” Defiant spoke.  “Her trigger event.” - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.2</ref> They went back to Teacher for a second application of his power, and then went non-profit to deny him their earnings from their mercenary work.<ref>Saint shot her a glare, then said, “He’s always about the long-term, thinking big.  Hitting major figures.  I think he wanted to hurt Dragon, for the same reason he hit the V.P. and Prime Minister, so he made it cheap.  Same as his first offer.  Five percent of our earnings, after costs.  We took the deal, and then we switched our group to be a nonprofit.”

“Nonprofit mercenaries,” I said.

“No earnings, money laundered and then issued to charities.  Because we aren’t going to funnel money into a group like his, not with the sort of shit he’s doing.  That was one of his big weaknesses, and that’s a weakness you can use against him, if it comes down to it.  He thinks too big.  His focus is always on the world, the plans, and he overlooks details, loopholes like what we pulled.” - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.2</ref>

From 2005 to June 2011, they fought Dragon a total of nine times<ref name=":1" />, winning every engagement. They captured three of her suits on three different occasions, and reverse-engineered them to create their own suits of armor.<ref>It hadn’t all been smooth sailing.  Saint, the head of the group that would become known as the Dragonslayers, had somehow discovered what she was and had used her rules and limitations against her.  A Black Hat Hacker, he had forced situations where she was obligated to scrub her data and restore a backup, had cut off signals between her agent systems and the satellites, and in the end, he had carted away three of her armored units on three separate occasions.  Dismantling the suits and reverse engineering the technology, he’d outfitted his band with special suits of their own. - Excerpt from Interlude 10.5</ref> Though they had more than one for each.<ref>“If Mags is still in prison, you have leverage against me,” Saint said.  “D. too.  He’s just a friend, but I’d miss him.  I’d also be able to offer up my side’s suits.  Something for the Rogue girl, so she’s a little more durable.” - Excerpt from Cockroach 28.2</ref>

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine

Were paid by Coil for tips on how to deal with Dragon.<ref name="16.5 e1">“She’s gone,” Tattletale replied. “Suits leaving the city, satellite phones are working. Few factors at play, there. I got word back from the Dragonslayers. Paid them a few million bucks to tell me how they keep getting the upper hand on Dragon, tell me how she’s relaying commands to her suits. With that, I had some squads plant C-4 and knock down cell towers. That slowed her down, cut her bandwidth, so to speak, and limited her ability to reprogram them on the fly. I’m guessing you guys took out one or more suits?” - Excerpt from Monarch 16.5</ref>

Post-Timeskip

Killed Dragon and disable her ability to reload from a backup after Saint perceived she was stepping outside of her limits after she started using her unlimited permission to access every device in the US capable of recording video or taking pictures in the hunt for the Slaughterhouse Nine against the Dragonslayers, tracing their identities and locations. In spite of intense public condemnation, they weren't immediately arrested over it.

Gold Morning

They were separated and detained after Teacher faked having escaped to outlying universes.

Post-Time Bubble Pop

The Dragonslayers stuck with Saint when he re-joined Teacher's Group. They piloted converted Dragoncrafts during The Wardens' assault on his compound. As a result Mags was accidentally killed by Swansong.<ref>Dying 15.6</ref>

After a short repair Dobrynja and Saint went outside the building and stumbled on Legend's squad. They attacked it, killing several heroes. Teacher ordered them to retreat, since defeated Legend was predicted to flip out and level the complex. They flew to Doctor Mother's garden on the platform above, where Tress and Harbinger V found them. After a short skirmish Dragonslayers were defeated, uncontrollably falling Victory I wiped out The Yàngbǎn-supported squad and Dobrynja surrendered to Legend.<ref name="15.xII" />

The Ice Breaks

Still held in The Wardens custody.<ref name="II19.z">Infrared 19.z</ref>

References

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