JUGGERNAUT

By - Kiyo

SETTING - Japan, 2017

<http://drakenfluegel.lostweyr.org/art/people/toy_arcturus.jpg>

For - Arcturus

"Sir, look at this manifestation algorithm..." Jessica said as her superior looked over her shoulder the monitor. "I honestly can't tell you how this is happening... This 'manifestation' seems to take over inflatable toys, mostly animals, and allow them to move." Jessica takes a sheet of paper, and starts jotting down information. "I've never seen anything like this before..."

"Well, the Americans have been trying to make 'living toys'.... It could be that. " Mr. Zindeau asked her.

"Well, we can either let it live and we experiment with it, or we kill it off. It seems that the new 'Juggernaut' system would kill it off..." Jessica said, comparing notes to the computer's analysis. "Yea, the Juggernaut would be 85-90% effective, but I see no reason in killing something that may not be harmful..."

Zindeau gave her a look "I don't want to take chances. Remember whenever this science lab discovered the viral infection in birds that transformed about 30% of the world's population into dragon morphs? That was chaotic, and not to mention caused a war of religion. And not to mention, but the Juggernaut weapon needs a test, and this is a good time."

Jessica felt offended by the draco-morph comment, for she was an anthromorphic dragon morph now. Her son is a part dragon-morph, and the father left her after she had changed during the war. The war was really one-sided. The humans just nuked the dragon offense, and all hell broke loose. She survived the war, but unfortunately her son didn't.

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Jessica got off the bullet train, and headed for home. She lives in Metro-Kyoto, Japan. Jessica is 27 'winters' old. She was 5'9'', and if she didn't have any clothes, there was no in-decency about her draconic form. After the nuclear war, the Earth totally changed. Atmosphere became warmer, and the earth's orbit rate and rotation rate had increased some. Now, the year is 257 days long, and seasons change like crazy. It just depends on the always changing rates/the sun.

The lab that she works with is mainly with the world defense system. They just recently launched the project 'Juggernaut 47' into space. It is a satellite, that functions similar to an EMP. It can destroy abnormalities specified by the user at the command terminal...at her job.

Jessica walked past a few garbage cans, and saw a big shiny mass. It was all shades of blue. Jessica bent down, and picked it up, revealing it to be a BIG vinyl inflatable dragon. He was so cute. <<see picture link>>. She noticed that the nozzle plug was still in, and noticed how that dragon had been deflated. There was a 6 inch slash on the poor dragon's chest. Jessica felt really bad about that, and wanted to help.

She folded the deflated dragon up, and carried it back to her apartment, in hopes she can save him.

About 15 minutes later, she got home, and laid the dragon out on her bed. She took a shower, and by the time she was relaxed, and ready to help the dragon it was 10 PM. She sat cross-legged on the bed, with the big dragon draped over her legs, and just about half the bed. She could tell he was going to be her size, if not bigger, when fully inflated. IF she could help. She reached for some packaging tape, and aligned the 2 edges of vinyl, and taped them.

She noticed something strange begin to happen...the tape was absorbed into the vinyl of the dragon, and no sign of the slash remained. She knew something was up, and thinks this is what she saw on the Juggernaut's tracking device. She had to search for the air-valve, and finally found in on the dragon's belly. She started inflating him, and after about 20 minutes, he was finished, and big.

"You're even cuter than I imagined..." Jessica whispered to the dragon, and laid a hand on the dragon's face, rubbing it with her thumb. Then, the dragon moved. He whimpered a bit, and felt where the slash was. Jessica blinked, not believing what was happening.

The dragon noticed her, and jumped back, slipping off the bed and falling, with a bounce, to the floor. Jessica giggled, and bent over to see if he was okay. He was shuddering, and Jessica picked him up with care. He was scared, and she could tell. She hugged the dragon warmly, and then sensed something, like a word, forming ARCTURUS. "Is that your name, Arcturus?" Jessica asked the dragon.

The dragon nodded, and then backed away. Jessica started feeling more things from the dragon, it was fear. He was scared of her. Then, she thought of it from his point of view… if someone was cruel enough to hurt him in the first place, he might think her the same person, or that she might hurt him.

Jessica crawled over to him, and held him close, and safe. "I promise, I won't hurt you." She whispered re-assuring to the dragon. He seemed to start relaxing. The dragon cuddled up to her side, and started murring. Jessica rubbed the dragon's soft back for a while, and then he sent her another mental message : sleepy. She laid him down on the bed, under the covers and she went to get ready for bed.

About 10 minutes later, she walked back into her room, and found the dragon sleeping. He was so cute, snoring softly. She smiled to herself, and crawled in bed with the dragon. She snuggled up to the dragon, and put her arm over his back, and gently stroked his neck and back. He smiled in his sleep, and started murring.

Jessica lay in bed awake for a long time, just thinking about the dragon. Sometime around 1 AM, he woke up, and smiled warmly at her. "Hey there." Jessica said softly to him. He gave her a questioning look, and she received his question. "I'd never hurt you, Arcturus. I won't let anyone harm you, I promise." Jessica told him, and he looked relieved. She received another message, and responded with : "I love you too."

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Jessica woke up really quick. She smashed the SLEEP button on her alarm clock. It was 6:30 AM. She peered over to the dragon, and what he was doing made her so happy inside. He was wrapped around her, and his head was on her neck/chest, snoring softly. She gently stroked his back, and sighed. She gently brought him closer to her, and hugged him gently, but warmly.

Jessica and Arcturus laid like that for what seemed like forever, and she had to get ready for work. She got up, and covered the dragon back up. The dragon meeped, and reached for her hand, but slipped and fell off the bed again. Jessica looked behind her, and ran back over to him. "Arcturus, you can't come with me… they'd hurt you, and I don't ever want the to happen." She said while cuddling the dragon to her. He was so sweet, yet so helpless.

She kept rubbing his back, and that put him to sleep. She laid him on the bed, and got ready for work. Whenever she finished, she hugged the dragon, and kissed him gently on the nose, and left for work.

While Jessica was running tests on the 'manifestations', being careful not to scan Arcturus, she discovered something… Zindeau was planning on firing the 'Juggernaut' system, with the algorithm of 012946. Jessica did a quick scan on Arcturus' algorithm, and it was 012946…

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Jessica stole the access codes for the logging scripts of the Juggernaut, and kept a close eye on the progress on her PDA. She sprinted home, to find Arcturus still sleeping. She grabbed her cell phone, and called Zindeau.

The phone ringed, and he finally answered "Hello?"

"Sir, this is Jessica. In data analysis. What are you doing with the Juggernaut??" Jessica asked.

"Fixing an error before it becomes a mistake." Zindeau responded kurtly.

"Arcturus is no mistake!" Jessica screamed, and it woke Arcturus up. He was worried.

"Who? Oh. The little inflatable dragon I tried to kill is still alive?"

Jessica was shocked, but she didn't know why. She should've caught on when she found out Arcturus was alive. "How could you do that to him? He's defenseless, and he would never harm anyone, never!" Jessica sobbed.

"It's no matter. The algorithm that runs the 'alive' digital cells in his body will be shut down, along with Arcturus. Thence, he will die." He replied with a harsh grin.

Jessica hung up the phone, by slamming it to the desk. She ran to Arcturus, and threw her arms around him. She noticed her PDA was loading the log…

C:/_> net use J: 107.048.104.251\JNAUT

Process complete

J:/_> RUN JNAUT 47

Loading processes…

Load complete.

Loading communications drive…

Load complete.

Loading data routing system…

Load complete.

Running diagnostics…

02593 = READY

03524 = READY

61968 = READY

30862 = READY

PREPARE TO FIRE…

Jessica was startled, and clung to Arcturus. "You can't die, I love you!" She said to him, as a bright light came out of no-where, and the windows shattered. She tried her hardest to protect him from the glass, and she got slashed on her back… after a few seconds more of that, it was over.

Jessica looked up weakly, and felt the pain from Arcturus, and herself. She saw Arcturus…not moving a bit. Not even blinking. Jessica started crying softly, and she buried her face in his vinyl chest. "I hate him, I hate him!" She cried. Then, she felt a something hug her, it was Arcturus! He was still alive!

She squeezed him so hard, she thought he'd pop, so she let off some. They laid in the bed, and just snuggled like that forever, and she knew that everything would turn out good and right in the end.