Chapter 1: 1. Highway To Hell

__________*_Alex_*__________

Near Ábær, Iceland, Tues 11 Jan '22 21:49

I stopped, turned quickly, and punched one of the SkyTech Dragons that was chasing me, my black and burnt armoured hand colliding into his jaw. The Dragon spun from the impact and crashed to the snow covered floor. The second of the 2 enemy Dragons tried grappling me, but even in my weakened state I managed to side step him and trip him up with my tail. It was at this moment I saw Skylen, the big brute of a Dragon, who I was just starting to count as my arch nemesis by this point, chasing down Sora. As large and bulky as he was, he had that impressive speed that I have seen him use before. I raised my arm, charged my plasma jet and just as I had him in my sights, I was grabbed by the ankle which threw my shot. The round of plasma released from the exhaust port of the plasma jet on my arm and missed it's target, sailing right in the path of the charging Slylen. He stopped his chase, looked in my direction, lips peeling back and revealing the 2 rows very sharp, menacing looking, carnivorous teeth lining his jaw. He now strode in my direction with great speed.

'At least he's been drawn away from Sora and the Shard.' I thought to myself.

It transpired, naturally, that it was one of the SkyTech that I had previously knocked to the deck that was grabbing my ankle. He used me to pull himself back up, punching me hard in the gut. Despite my armour, I felt that... my already failed and failing internal organs screamed in complaint to me from impact. I let out a girlish cry of pain as I stumbled away bent over, holding my stomach in an attempt to make myself feel better and tried to prepare myself for another round. It wasn't long before all 3 of these Dragons were on my case, but as much as I tried, I was too weak, too slow to deal any sort of damage back to them all, even with occasionally trying to use my tail blades. The hits kept coming, each and everyone of them wearing me down a little more, my resilience starting to fail.

Sarah: "Crystal! What's the matter?, Alex is moving too slow! You need to help her!" I heard my friend call from god knows where, while I tackled with the vicious trio. My AI, Crystal, replied to her maker, Sarah, from the external hidden speakers in my armour...

Crystal: "All power is being diverted to life support and suit's attack and defence systems. Core efficiency is down to 12% and falling rapidly!"

Skylen: "Good to hear! This is boring me!..." He growled before immediately punching me square in the face, right on the end of my helmeted snout. I stumbled back and just about raised my arm in time to istinctively but unnecessarily defend my covered face from the razor sharp tail blades he then swung at me, the blades screeched off of the metal armour plating. "...You should have joined us when I gave you the chance Alex! We would have made you better than this!..."

He kicked me away to the floor... I was struggling so bad, every move was becoming agonising, I just about managed to stand back up, slowly, on all fours then gradually pulled myself back to two feet again, staggering back slightly as I tried to compose myself again, "...Soo weak! Almost Human again!"

One of the other SkyTech went for a swing of a fist but Crystal, forced my armour back to avoid the swing, jarring me in the process, but then she helped me to swing beside him, close enough to grab him in a head lock. With the assistance that the servos in the suit gave me, I hoisted him into the air by his neck and swung him around, knocking back the other SkyTech that was attempting to approach for his next attack. I released the head lock and as I did, I was sure to give him a kick in the sternum, just for added affect to ensure he was far enough away from myself. The other SkyTech, the one I had knocked away with his colleague, was already back on me, so again I deployed my tail blades and tried to swing for him, but I was grabbed by the head, just as I swung. I had no idea if my blades ever actually made contact.

Wrex: "Alex!..." I heard him call for me, I had no idea where he was in relation to me now, I was getting battered about too much to take in my surroundings, I thought I heard him growl something else, but under the racket of assault to my armour and therefore myself, I couldn't exactly hear what. I swung and elbowed one of the SkyTech in the face, I wasn't even sure which one was which now, things were becoming a blur, I was feeling faint, dizzy, weak... Another SkyTech slashed his blades down my arm once more, leaving some deep scratches in the armour plating.

I just about managed to kick him away in retaliation before being grabbed by the neck from behind by Skylen and thrown over his head in a powerful swing, slamming me hard at the floor behind him. I barely had time to pull myself up as Skylen spun on the spot to swing his tail at my head... The sound of the smash rattled through my head, the sound of metal giving way and bending causing my ears to ring and my vision feeds to all but completely fail - I could barely see what was going on outside my helmet anymore now.

Sarah: "Alex! No! Watch out!" I heard her scream at me from god knows where.

Fire then illuminated what of my vision remained, but not outside, inside of my helmet! Flames were licking in through the cracks and openings in my buckled face plates. I stumbled, to try and get away from the source of the fire before hearing the echoing and deafening sounds of 50 calibre riffles... *DOOF DOOF DOOF DOOF DOOF DOOF*... The rounds hit my armour, not puncturing it, but certainly damaging it, the indentations hitting me like paint ball rounds against my already sore scaly skin.

I covered my now compromised face plates with my arm, lucky I did, I could feeel the rounds ricocheting off of my forearm. I turned to try and get away from the onslaught, only for my vision feeds to mostly come back, distorted, but still enough to be looking down the barrel of Skylen's cannon, essentially what looked like a stock-less 12 gauge shot gun... but past experience told me it had a bit more kick than that... It charged and whined loudly, a ball of blueish white plasma glowed down in the chamber, illuminating the whole interior of the barrel... I had no time to move... Skylen fired... *POW* straight at my head... The searing heat found its way through every crevice possible. In that instant, I smelt my own burning flesh, the air inside my helmet becoming intensely hot, too much to bare. I felt the force was great enough to send me flying back, my feet leaving the ground and in what felt like forever, I flew, finally feeling gravity pulling me back to the snow covered ground. I crashed hard into the shallow layer of snow and dirt that lay beneath it, skidding to a halt. I slowly opened my eyes, the cold air stinging my burnt face which I now realised was very exposed to the outside world, my faceplates were gone entirely from the blast of Skylen's cannon.

Sarah: "Alex!" I saw her, my black haired emo Human friend, the person who has already saved my life a few times, now looking rather helpless, as she hid behind a low embankment in front of me. She tried to get up but I saw Sora, my Draconian friend who was ducked down next to her, pull Sarah back down.

Skylen: "I guess I was wrong, you don't have the potential..." I heard him say from behind me, "...The blight known as the Human race will be extinguished. But you won't live to see it... and I'll make sure of it this time."

Crystal: "Plasma core depleted, 1%. Shut down imm-" she announced from my armour and fell silent. I instantly felt unsupported, weak, weaker than I had been this whole fight, my armour no longer assisting and pushing me on. I felt my breath draw in, slowly and staggered, then breath out... then that was it, my body refused to breath back in. I felt my heart stop, the thudding that you never really take notice of, it was now, noticeably, not present, just silence. I felt tired, I had to sleep... But I knew it wasn't sleep coming over me, and I knew that I wouldn't be waking back up from this...  With the last bit of air I had, I managed to wheeze out one more word to my friends, one last bit of advice...

Me: "Run..." And my head relaxed to the floor, my eyes rolling shut and everything falling dark...

__________*_Future Alex_*__________

Me: "Woah woah woah... Hang on... If you start the story there, that's gonna be confusing for everyone. For this to make any sense we need to tell the viewers and readers EVERYTHING. Like, from day 1. Pretty much every day from the start of my story here has been a learning curve. I fucked up a couple of times... ok, so quite a few times, but that's how we learn, right? I died a couple of times too... got raped... I won't go into that too much, rather not talk about it. I still don't have all the answers as to how or why everything happened the way it has. But through my journey I found a meaning to my existence, became a bit of celebrity, hell, they even started making toys of me! But most importantly, I found friends, true friends, close enough that I actually count them as family, even made additions to that family along the way."

"So... My name is Alex... And just Alex now, I only link my surname with my old life which I don't like to look back on. Here's the story, MY story, of how my life was completely changed, from a boring, mundane life of a guy with a day job to a powerful and pretty much unstoppable goddess. So... Let's wind back to day 1... The day I got kidnapped..."

__________*_Alex Crawford_*__________

Earth, Canterbury, 14th August 2021

Alex's alarm sounded on his phone, 0700, his second alarm, he already silenced the one at 0630, this one was to make sure he was actually getting up for work. The song he had selected as his alarm tone? 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' by The Clash, his little inward joke about whether he should get up or not, always added a bit of ironic amusement to the start of his day. He went to get up by throwing the duvet off of himself, but it was quickly thrown back over him and an arm cuddled him from behind and held him in bed.

"Baby... I need to get up." he groaned.

"Nooo..." the love of his life, Kayley, croaked back.

"Babyyy... I have to go to work... unlike some." he rolled over partially to look at her sleepy face, remnants of a combination of bed and sex hair from last night.

"Not my fault I had holiday to use." she said with a smirk but only partially opening one eye. When she didn't have her 'just waking up' face on, she was a very pretty girl, below shoulder length hair, brunette with odd faint but natural blonde highlights, perfect facial features and a size 10 body, nice slender legs, nice arse, D cup boobs, everything about her was just,... perfect. He gave her a quick peck on the forehead and pulled her arm off him and started sliding out of the bed, she murmured happily as she snuggled her self up in the duvet as he got out of bed. He smiled and carried on getting ready for work.

He had his usual morning desparate piss, got dressed, had his cereal, done his teeth, sorted his lunch and drinks, packed into his rucksack for the day. He went back up to his bedroom, finding his fiancee exactly as he had left her, only stirring at hearing him enter the room. He leaned over the bed to give her a proper kiss,

"See you later baby." he hated the word 'Bye', bye always sounded too... final.

"What do you think for dinner tonight?" she mumbled, still half asleep.

"Erm, I don't know, surprise me." he said, sticking his tongue out. She lifted her head up, did a playful scowl and dropped her head back down.

"Fine, I'll do you toast... Love you" she said mockingly with a smile. Alex chuckled back,

"Fine then, toast by candle light it is then,..." he mocked back, "...I'll help you finish when I'm home, Love you too." Leant in gave her another kiss and she murmured happily again. Alex left the room, down stairs and out the front door, pulled his keys from his pocket and bipping his car unlocked, his Obsidian Black Subaru Forester STI, which had a few red graphics on the side to highlight some of the shapes and lines in the body work.

He jumped in the driving seat and started the engine, it rumbled into life, the 2.5L boxer engine burbling away. He gave it it's usual minute or so of warming up, using the time to have a quick skim through Facebook to see if he missed anything important, before pulling off the drive and heading off down the road to work.

After 10 minutes of driving out of town in the normal rush hour Alex reached the slip road for the dual carriageway, checked his oil temperature gauge, 'yep, nicely up to temp'. He smiled as he dropped a gear as he got onto the slip road... The sound of the boxer growled loudly down slip road, changed up, hammered on again as he joined the dual carriageway, still smiling, he loved this car. He merged with the carriage way and settled down to legal speeds, carried on for a short while, taking his third junction off, turning left at the top of the slip road to head down the lanes.

He took it steady now, there was room down these lanes to get 2 cars passed each other easily, but come across a tractor or a truck and you'll be trading paint. Going along a straight section, Alex saw a 4x4 pull and wait at a junction on his left, a dark blue Range Rover P38 to be precise, a fair way ahead, curious as to why it was waiting, there was plenty of time to pull out and nothing else on this road apart from another car coming the opposite way way off in the distance.

It took him a good 15 seconds or so to get up the junction, then the most stupid thing happened... The Range Rover launched out straight just as Alex was on top of the junction. Alex's quick reactions took hold, it was too late to stop so he stomped on the loud pedal and yanked hard right on the steering wheel. The Forester's all wheel drive system worked hard, giving the best traction to rip the car out of harms way, which it did fantastically, narrowly avoiding the front of the Range Rover and he swerved back into his lane.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?! YOU DICK HEAD!" Alex shouted back while taking a brief look in his rear view mirror.

*BANG!!!* He was briefly thrown forwards before his airbag smashed him back in the seat, he could feel the car spinning and screeching out of control down the road, bounced roughly and came to a stop. Alex was still conscious but his head was spinning, his face felt burnt, ears ringing to the point he could barely hear anything else, his neck and back hurt quite badly, his lungs drawing in a horrible mixture of the explosive smell and powder created by the airbag detonating and boiling hot antifreeze. 

He squashed the deflated airbag down out of his face to see his windscreen smashed, and his bonnet was bent and folded up with steam pouring out around it. He undone his seat belt and fumbled for the door handle... Pulled it but the door didn't budge, tried pulling on it again while barging it with his shoulder, still no avail. Then he realised the window had shattered and wasn't there any more, so in Dukes of Hazard style pulled himself up over the top of the door and out of the window.

Alex slipped off the edge of the door and fell to the floor with a grunt, gasping for clean air, he pulled himself off the ground, taking in the wreckage that was his beloved car partially perched on a bank. The front end was certainly stoved in, damage trailing all down the right hand side of the car to the end of the back door, but what did he hit? His look followed his pirouetting tyre marks down to see an unscathed Nissan Patrol, thanks to it's heavy duty bull bar on the front.

It span around in the road and the Range Rover from earlier joined along side the Patrol and charged down the road towards Alex. He stepped backwards around the front of his car away from the ominous scene in front of him. Then heard a godsend of a sound from behind him, a siren, an ambulance approaching him, 'Not the police, but it will do' he thought to himself as he walked in their direction.

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The ambulance came to a halt and the paramedics stepped out and toward him,

"Hey, hey! can you call the police down here, those 2 just ran me off the road!" Alex said, turning to look and point back at the 2 4x4s coming to a stop behind the remains of his car and the owners stepped out and he was grabbed roughly from behind and a cloth mashed over his mouth and nose.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" He managed to muffle as he started to collapse, the last thing he remembered seeing was the owner from the Patrol walking towards him, bald, tough looking, almost militaristic walk, a leather jacket and a plain black t-shirt underneath... that's as much as he took in. 

__________

Alex awoke on a some table, he was numb, barely any energy to move, he managed to turn his head slightly and barely open his eyes but everything was a blur.

"What's going on?" He tried to ask, but his own voice returned to his ears as nothing more than slur.

"What the hell?! D24! He's waking up! Up his dosage!" Someone said, her voice a muffled echo as she spoke, stepping closer to him, though he couldn't make out any of her features, things faded to black again moments later.

__________

Next time Alex woke up he felt strange, still the same numbness and his body unwilling to respond to his commands, but now he felt weightless. Again he managed to partially open his eyes... He was in a tank, floating in some kind of green liquid, through the glass opposite him he could see other green looking tanks with human shapes in them.

He forced as much effort as he could into raising his hand, slowly he manged to raise his right hand and press against the glass, trying his best to push it open, but he was too weak. Someone walked past slowly clipboard in hand, looked up at him, paused, dropped his clipboard and ran off, it was only a matter of seconds before he went under again.

__________

The next time I woke, I wish I hadn't... my body burned with pain all over, every inch of me, inside and out. My skin felt like it was being stretched to ripping point, my joints felt like they were being ripped apart, my head felt like it was about to explode, there was pain in places I didn't know I had and I could hear and feel my own heart was racing, about to explode out of my chest. I opened my eyes and I could more easily press my hands out against the glass this time, I had more strength than before, maybe it was the adrenaline, I was still in the tank, but my arms, they didn't look right, they looked dark, but I couldn't focus on them, the pain was just too much and I passed out.

__________

I awoke yet again and again I couldn't move... Not because i had no strength, but because I was restrained, oddly on my front, but looking horizontally, which oddly didn't feel uncomfortable in the slightest. My ears were met with the sound of a heart monitor, opening my eyes I tried to look around, but my head was restrained too, but then I noticed the view, not in the background, but the foreground... Down my face, it was long and arrowed or triangular, like a snout and looked like... Scales?! I tried snapping to sit up but all I did was alert whoever was around me as the restraints creaked under tension and I unintentionally growled in annoyance.

"Shit! She's awake again!" A male voice said

"I need her still if you want me to finish installing my implant!" A female said.

"Increase the ketamine dosage!" Another female said.

"If we give her much more it would be enough to take down an elephant!" The male said.

"Do it!" The second female said. As much as I wriggle and strained at the restraints I couldn't break free and moments later everything went dark yet again...

__________

Once more I woke up, I snapped up right, smacking my head on something above me and I hissed in pain. I reached up and messaged my head... But it didn't feel right... There was no hair and the shape was all wrong, so too did the hand stroking it, it felt... different. I looked down at my hand but I couldn't see it, where ever I was it was too dark. There was minimal light in here, I reached out to try and work out where I was, my hands felt from the ceiling down, down 2 angle walls and a floor, I reached out in front and found a wall. I tried to turn around, but it wasn't easy, something was attached to my lower back and was causing me to catch of both walls. But then I realised, I could feel through it, that thing, what ever it was attached to me, I could feel the wall through it.

Me: "What the fuck? *Gasp.*" my hands shot up to my face at the sound of my feminine voice, although they ended up smashing the end of my face, which felt almost, swollen? But not painful... My hands felt around my face, it felt like a... snout? Then I remembered earlier when I woke up, how my face appeared then, my hands traced back over my head, taking in the rest of the details, everything felt bumpy, like scales, elongated neck, down my torso and down my legs, which were oddly shaped, same sort of layout as a dog or something! Ending in three toes and... "Ow!" ... very sharp claws... I flicked my hand in pain, "...Well, I would have thought stabbing myself would have the same effect as pinching, so I'm not dreaming... And why the fuck do I sound like a girl!, seriously!..." Then I paused in fear as the thought hit me, my hand slid down my mid rift, down between my legs, certainly back far enough... I had no 'male junk' at all, just a slight indentation of a line, a slit... I applied pressure and the parting opened and my finger slipped in... That was it... Now I spazzed out... Lashing out at the sides, floor and ceiling "...WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! CHANGE ME BACK! LET ME OUT!!!"

__________

...Quite some time later, possibly hours, I laid slumped against my side of this hexagonal cell, after probably 10-15 minutes of going berserk earlier, and finding out simultaneously that I not only had a tail but wings too, I realised that either no one was out there or nobody cared. Then I cried for a couple of minutes, wondering if I was ever going to be normal again and more importantly, if I was ever going to see Kayley again, my beautiful, sweet, wifey to be, Kayley. Then, I just lay slumped against the side of this cell I was in, now that I was calmed down, I tried being more logical about the situation, trying to work back through the details, 'So I was kidnapped, the 4x4 guys and the ambulance were all in on it, that was obvious. They knocked me out, took me somewhere and what, experimented on me? Turned me into a... A "dragon"? Because from the feel of it, that's exactly what I was. But why? And why a GIRL dragon at that?, a 'Dragoness' if you will? For what purpose?'

My curiosity started speaking through my boredom though, I shifted my position more to on my side, partially opened my legs and I let my hand wander down my front to my slit. Like earlier, I applied pressure and the slit parted allowing my finger tip to slip in, remembering I had claws I carefully manoeuvred my finger and it sunk deeper, only about half an inch maybe, but I gasped at the sensation... Then my male mind screamed and took back over, I yanked my finger out and punched the side of the cell,

Me: "No!... For fuck sake what is wrong with you?!..." I shouted at myself. I allowed my head to drop hard against the wall "...Will someone let me out, PLEASE!..." I asked in annoyance and desperation. But I was answered by a whirring of machinery nearby which got closer and I sat up, trying to work out what it was. "...Was that all I needed to say? 'please'? Seriously?" The sound stopped right outside, then there was a 'clack' sound and the pod jerked, then I could feel motion, steadying myself as I felt it spin for a moment and change direction.

The whirring  continued for a minute or so then came to a stop, then pod dropped slightly and stopped again. It stayed motionless for a few minutes before being lowered again and stopped again, there was a clicking noise under my feet and I jumped spread my hands and feet to hold myself against the lower of the hexagonal sides as the floor gave way and opened beneath me.

I peeked down and met gaze with a woman in a lab coat, brown hair and glasses, crouching down and looking back at me. I took my opportunity to escape and lunged out at her, not to hurt her, just merely to knock her down and escape. Instead all I did was smash my face on a perfectly clean and clear piece of glass that I didn't realise separated us, bouncing back to sitting on my behind, I shook my head and massaged my snout.

"Now now, D-two four, no need to be like that." the woman in the lab coat said after she stood back up.

Me: "There is, when you're keeping me here against my will!" I hissed at her, the first of many issues I wanted to get off my chest, but she carried on talking.

"Oh come now, we're here to take care and look after you after the explosion, do you remember the explosion?" 'Explosion? what the fuck is she talking about?' I thought to myself.

Me: "I remember a car crash." I said abruptly, trying to correct her, but clearly this confused the woman as she paused and her mouth dropped slightly. She paused, pulled what looked like a remote from her lab coat pocket and pressed a button and she started talking again, only thing was I couldn't hear her, it was like I had gone deaf, I tapped my claw on the glass beneath me, I heard that, so she's muted the mic for outside this cell... wish I could lip read right now. She finished talking, then the guy behind and to one side of her said something short before turning to his computer and typing something. The woman's mouth moved again but as soon as it stopped moving my head screeched from inside, feeling like it was about to explode, I braced my head and screwed my face up in agony a silent scream escaped my mouth. Then... nothing,

'Something's not right, they just did something to my head, what was it, what was I doing here? I'm not supposed to be here... I'm supposed to be, home? Yeah... and... my wife... no wife to be... what was her name... Kylie... no, Kayley!, what did she look like?,' I strained hard to think how she looked when I last saw her and her face came back to the forefront of my mind 'oh my god they just tried to erase my memory!'

"D-two four, How are you feeling?" The woman asked, I stared back at her... 'Why does she keep calling me 'D-two four'? I have a name... or did I?... it's not D24, it's... wait... What the fuck what was it?... Crawford... Aurora?... No... Alice... Alice Crawford? No ALEX Crawford, ALEXANDER! I'm meant to be a guy!'

"D-two four?" the woman asked again, '...unless they don't want me to remember who I am and where I come from...' I looked to the guy then back to the woman, only just noticing her name tag 'Dr R. Skiff', '...if I stood any chance of getting out of here then I'm going to have to play along...'

Me: "I'm fine, thank you." in as calm a voice as I could muster, I started to look all around this cell I was in, looking for any possibility of escape, the doors above were closed, the frame looked strong and judging by my earlier headbutt, the glass was strong too, probably bullet proof...

Skiff: "Ok... So... do you remember the explosion? or anything before that?" She asked again, 'bloody hell, determined to brain wash me with that story aren't you I squinted back at her unintentionally,

Me: "I... no... I don't think so" I half fibbed, half truth.

Skiff: "Ok, well, all you and your team that were caught in the blast seemed have amnesia, your memories may return, they may not, if they don't we can retrain you. But you do know that we are all here to help you, yes?" Dr Skiff asked sounding cautious.

Me: "That's... good to know" I replied, not sure what else to say.

Skiff: "I think you need to rest now D-two four, if you could head through the door behind you please, you may join the rest of your friends." Dr Skiff said and I spun around at the sound, the wall at the end of this hexagonal glass tube opened revealing a pipe beyond. I looked back to the the 2 scientists, before heading down the pipe and the door closed behind me, then there was a weird click in my head, off putting enough to make me grit my teeth,

Me: "Argh... fuck sake... sooner I get out of here the better" I said to myself proceeding down the pipe.

(-AC DC)

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