Victor Stone had resigned himself to the fact that he was completely alone in the world. He had comrades, but they were completely organic. He had people he'd consider calling 'friend', but they were organic as well. They had secret identities. They...
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Harper had activated the old, discarded mech and it seemed to have been untouched by whomever was hacking into her other suits. It was likely because this particular design had never been switched on, nor had it ever been connected to Harper's neural implant; meaning that there was no trace of it anywhere.
This suit, which Harper had never named, had the number '1065' etched into the hull. She had scrapped it after realising that the design would cost too much to complete, so the suit was missing many features that her other mechs possessed - smart targeting systems being one of them. That meant that she would have to manually aim each weapon before firing, which when in the midst of a fight, would take up a significant amount of time.
Harper knew that this mech would be practically useless in a space fight, so there was only one thing to do. She needed to find the source of this chaos...she needed to go back to Australia and find the Progenitor.
In the hangar, there were four available Javelin's, but only one large enough for her to steer inside of her clunky suit. As soon as the ship was switched on, however, Victor was immediately aware of it. Since his cybernetic mind was connected to the Watchtower's network, he could sense any movement from within.
"Harper? What are you doing?" Victor suddenly spoke into the comms.
Harper scurried to turn the microphone inside of the Javelin on. "Don't worry about me, Vic. Focus on protecting the Watchtower."
"How am I supposed to do that if you don't tell me where you're going?"
"I'm sorry." Harper sighed. There was hesitance in her voice...and fear. Victor had never heard her voice whispering so softly before, or so full of uncertainty. She had always been courageous; whether she was in a mech or in her wheelchair. Now, though, she sounded like a child. One that was terrified of what was to come. "There's something I have to do...just trust me, yeah?"
Victor had faith in Harper's abilities, truly he did...but she was still recovering. Any amount of head trauma could crack her skull right back open again, then what would he do? He wouldn't be there to stitch her back together...and he'd lose her. Though this was the most painful thought that he had ever bared, Victor also knew that Harper was not the kind of woman to sit around idly with a full-blown battle ensuing. Even if he had argued, she wouldn't have listened. So, with a rather strong right hook aimed at an oncoming mech, Victor grunted "Okay, I trust you."
There was a sigh of relief on the other end, then all communications within the Javelin were cut off. Harper was gone, speeding towards Earth and disappearing into its atmosphere.
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It was weird to be home again, Harper thought as she landed the Javelin on Australian soil. The reasoning was even stranger. She never thought that she'd return with the sole intent of destroying centuries worth of research.
