The hivemind is conquering for me?

We arrived at a warehouse and the man with blue cybernetic eyes looked at me. ”Look, Talos is already in a bad mood due to the war. Please try not to provoke him in any way, his body has become trigger happy recently.”

I looked at the man in front of me, the expression of my face needing no explanation. ”And you tell me now? You do realise my bodyguard once knocked him out in front of me after he randomly placed his chest shotgun against the side of my head? I think that type of man tends to hold a grudge over that type of thing, and now he is trigger happy? Fair warning. I am not responsible for acts of self defence.”

The man before me suddenly remembered the guard in question I was talking about. He wasn’t sure how he forgot... This man has ties to the praetorians...

”It was just a precautionary warning Apollo sir, don’t think too much on it, I will do my best to make sure Talos doesn’t try anything.” He said, causing me to nod at him. ”Very well, let’s get this done. I want to get home.”

…

”Talos, can you stop looming over me like that?” Z asked as she looked up from her paperwork. Talos’ large form was heaving up and down as he just stared at the woman for a moment before replying.

”Forgive me, the love of my life, I have to stay close to you. We are at war with the enemy. If they come and attack, I have to be able to protect you in a moment’s notice.” Z scoffed at Talos with disdain, causing him to reel back a moment from the emotional damage. She could handle herself. Even without her Psionic ability, her augments were beyond advanced for Spartari, she could rip even her head simp in half if she so chose.

Z then went back to her paperwork. She was going over her organisation’s expenses and gains. Despite the fact the war was absurdly profitable for them, the expenses of the new recruits and the constant fighting was also incredibly high. At the current rate, although she was still making more than she was before the war, the profit margins were not as large as she had hoped.

As she was going over it and sighing every so often, breaking Talos’ heart in the process at seeing her so upset, he decided now would be the time to share the good news. ”My lady love, I have some news for you. The Military-”

*Bang*

The doors to the warehouse flung open and a group of men barged in. Z noticed briefly that they seemed to have a prisoner with a bag over his head and took the chance to escape for a minute.

”Talos, you deal with that, I am going to go make myself a drink.” She said and scurried into the next room before the man could say anything. Talos watched Z leave with a mixture of love and lust before turning towards his men with hatred in his eyes.

Stomping over, his new war augments, making him nearly nine feet tall, made the stomping extra terrifying and In a deep distorted voice, different from the one he had just used with Z, that was quiet and smooth, Growled in anger.

”I told you fucks no interruptions. I am on a date! This better be important.” Talos’ anger died down after realising they had a prisoner. It must be someone high up in Timmy’s organisation in order to risk his ire.

”Who is the prisoner?” He asked, not expecting the prisoner to talk back. ”I’m not a prisoner, I was just not allowed to see your perimeter for security reasons. Can I take the bag off now?”

I then took the bag off without confirmation and looked up at Talos. ”Whoa, hey big guy, did you get bigger?” I said in reflex, and I wasn’t sure if it was my words that caused Talos to aim all of his arsenal towards me or his past grievance towards me.

Talos’ subroutines were doing everything in their power not to shoot the fucker before him until nothing remained. He still vividly remembered the embarrassment he received after being deactivated before his love. She didn’t talk to him for a month after that, causing him to curse the man before him every single day since.

Talos had questions. But if he heard the man in front of him speak again, he would blow his brains out... He couldn’t afford to do that with the threat of his northern border being attacked if he did so, so he asked the leader of the men that brought him here.

”What is this noble fool doing in my territory? Does he wish death upon himself?” He then turned to me and made his voice sound demonic. ”Because I would be happy to oblige.”

I had my suit ready to cover me in a moment’s notice, the guy had more firepower than I was comfortable being pointed at with and considering blue eyes warning and the feeling of malice I felt radiating off the giant war-borg, I Was not taking any chances.

”Sir. Archon Apollo’s shuttle was shot down by Timmy’s lot while he was in transit to the strip airport. We picked him up when entering our territory and brought him straight to you.”

”Interesting...” Talos said slowly as he glared at Apollo, an evil smile would be blooming onto his face, if he currently had a smile to bloom. ’So I can kill this fucker and blame it on Timmy’s crew? Drawing Sophia into the conflict without having to rely on the help of those fuckers? Oh lady luck is truly with me today!’

Or so he thought.

...

”You free? I need an excuse to leave something...” Z texted her friend ’D’ who replied as she was making herself a drink. ”one hour- speakeasy- if you are late, you are buying.” Z smiled at this and replied. ”Ok babes, talk soon!” She text back and smiled happily as she made herself a quick drink.

She then returned to the main area of the warehouse once more just in time as Talos began rotating his shoulder mounted minigun in intimidating as he said to his victim. ”Luck is on my side this day Apollo. You don’t leave this place alive!”

Z suddenly jolted in place hearing the familiar name. Moving to her right a little bit, she immediately spotted the purple haired figure she recognised in a heartbeat and before Talos could even aim his weapon downwards, she unleashed her power.

...

Just as I was about to reach into the cyborg’s chest in front of me and rip out his heart, as I really should have expected stupidity, even from the metal freaks... this was still the south after all...

I suddenly watched as his entire frame began sparking like haywire, his weapon systems shutting down and keeled over backwards, creating a dent in the warehouse’s floor as he did so.

I expected the men surrounding me to aim their weapons at me, assuming I did this, but instead they dropped their weapons on the ground and prostrated themselves in a direction. A direction I followed with my eyes and spotted someone.

”Zeona?” I asked, recognising the woman that I went all super cool spy man on in the neutral gathering. I then clocked onto why she was staring at me and looked down at Talos and put my hands up. ”Hey, I didn’t do this. I swear! I was about to turn him into scrap as he seemed eager to end me, but he just started sparking like he stuck his finger into a plug socket.”

Zeona was a little stunned. The man before him was taller than the last time she met him. That was not all though. Her augmented eyes were works of technological art. She could see things others couldn’t Especially not regular organic eyes. The hidden power radiating out of the man before her was shocking. The last time they met, he did not radiate like this at all.

She quickly realised she was gawking and composed herself. ”Ah Apollo, sorry, that was me. As you have been made aware in our first meeting. Talos here has a bit of a temper. I sincerely apologise for how he acted. His actions towards you does not convey the attitude the rest of our organisation has towards you.”

A wave of gasps sounded from the prostrating goons. Never would they have thought to hear their great, beautiful leader apologise to anyone. Zeon didn’t appreciate their mutterings in front of someone she actually respected and flared up her power again to take total authority over their cybernetics and augmentations and shut them up temporarily.

I nodded my head, accepting her apology, as I could tell she meant it, causing her to breathe in relief and walked towards me now the tension was gone. ”Though you are welcome here anytime, the question remains, why are you here?”

After I explained the situation that had happened to me again, Zeona looked me up and down and smiled. ”You know, I am about to head out for some drinks. You could definitely use one. Do you care to join me? I can personally fly you back home afterwards?”

I thought it over for a moment. I remembered this woman being nice company and it was not like Sophia knew the exact day I was coming back home after all. She wouldn’t have thrown a party in the time Orchid and Keyla got back.

”Sure, I could do with a drink.”