We started with the coin flip which he promptly won, surprise.

Thomas had arranged for an adjustable shop stool with backrest to be available for me, which was very nice of him. Honestly, the chair was perfect to sit at normal-height tables with, in addition to being height-adjustable it even had a large gap in between the stool and backrest for my stubby little tail.

Note to self, pick up a few later.

Roulette was entertaining, with him mostly going for the column bets which paid two-to-one and occasionally a few other types of inside bets. We had previously agreed on either a time or a chip limit, whoever had the greatest amount of money after about thirty minutes is the winner, or if someone hit ten thousand dollars in chips when we both started from a thousand.

I was abusing knowledge that the first wearable computer was designed by two MIT teachers to beat roulette back in the 1960's. The wearable "computers" were clunky but they did work and earned both of the men tidy sums of money before the casino's caught on and banned electronic devices that could be used to cheat. They would both later become known for developing and utilizing blackjack card-counting methods and made fortunes in the process.

Thomas made simpler bets and won the majority of them, I was placing 'straight-up' bets on multiple single numbers. Calculating the likely area where the ball would fall by timing the ball as it rolled around the outside of the roulette wheel and unleashing the power of mathematics upon the entire ensemble. Incidentally, some of the very same probability-theory math that I had been working with Dragon and Armsmaster with to develop the Endbringer prediction code applied to the roulette wheel.

The probability theory mathematical formulas devolved by the two MIT teacher allowed you to predict the "section" of the roulette wheel where the ball would most likely fall, the section would usually cover about four-to-six numbers. I only placed bets after the ball had started rolling since I needed the speed of the ball in as a variable to plug into the formula.

Additionally, since the roulette wheel's numbers were scattered around the entire wheel and not in order, the group of six numbers that I was betting on looked completely random which made the look on his face as I won yet another thirty-five-to-one bet all the sweeter.

Fifteen minutes into it and he was starting to visibly sweat as we stayed neck and neck, my multiple single bets and occasional outright loss greatly reduced the profitability of the thirty-five to one odds that I was playing at. The dealer looked particularly amused as the increasingly unlikely "lucky" streaks swelled both of our pile of chips.

I just grinned at him as he passed the total amount we had agreed on, winning the game for himself, "Well that was fun, let's play Clue next."

Thomas stood up with a subtle smile and straightened his shirt. "That sounds fine, however, I need a quick break before we continue." and without waiting for a response promptly headed out into the hallway.

A quick check of my phone and I turned my attention to the dealer as she cleaned up the roulette chips, "So… Chris was it, how long have you been dealing?"

The dealer concentrated on stacking the chips into cases and didn't look at me while replying, "A few years, mostly for private parties."

"Do you have a business card or contact number?"

She glanced at me as she finished stacking the chips, "Sorry, not on me."

"Oh, well can you send me your info over PHO then?"

Her mouth crinkled up into a slight frown, "Sorry, let me be frank. I can't really discuss anything like that while I'm on the job, it's unprofessional."

Fine, be that way. I grinned at her, "So... Chris, that's short for Christine right?"

She looked at me as just the slightest flash of anger tracing its way across her face before she turned away. Ignoring me she walked over to the still sealed Clue box and started setting it up.

Eventually, Thomas returned looking significantly less ruffled than when he left. 'Chris' took the place as the third but otherwise inactive player.

Lost at Clue with Thomas's 'Professor Plum with the knife in the library' guess, followed by another loss in rock-paper-scissors and then in Battleship. We then had a nice little lunch break, which was interrupted by my phone finally ringing.

Nodding a bit, I hung up the phone. "Thomas, sorry but we have to cut this short, it looks like they are calling in the Wards. The Dragonslayers have been spotted in town and the Protectorate wants us to be on alert and prepared for a possible attack. We can either continue this later or... if you want we can just flip a coin for each remaining game..."

Thomas grinned, "That's a shame Six-Two-Six and here I was having such... Fun. Yes, let's flip a few coins then to conclude our business before you leave."

Even while nursing a headache Thomas couldn't help but gloat a little. The Oracle was his, the creature had put up an unexpectedly good fight but still, in the end, he had triumphed over that little blue fool. Handing off the two other parts of the Oracle and the manual to the technicians to install them in their own Datacenter he headed up to the office carrying the "Morality Core."

Such a stupid, ridiculous name for the Oracle's interface. Opening the aluminum briefcase his hands wandered over the keyboard as he lightly caressed the keys with his fingers.

Oh, what fun we'll have together.

Six-Two-Six rushed out of the building and opened the cruiser to change out of his suit and into his normal "Cape" outfit. Strapping on the jetpack, he placed the recently modified "jetpack" controls inside of his lower hands and retracted the lower arms into his body to hide them.

The phone let out a high pitched beeping noise, warning him that he had only a few more minutes before they arrived. Grabbing a bottle of water, he splashed a bit against his eyes to darken the fur with streaks of "tears". Grabbed the second, brown faux-leather covered briefcase from the cruiser before plopping back down onto the sidewalk.

The tiny blue-fur covered cape ran its hands over its exposed fur on its head, making it stick out in several places and placed the briefcase on the ground behind himself. Looking around Six-Two-Six checked to make sure that he was out of eyeshot and hidden behind the Cruiser from anyone or any of the cameras inside and on the building.

Immediately, he vomited a bit of his lunch all over the ground before belly-flopping into it. Sitting back up he sat next to the briefcase with his ears popped up as he waited.

Long before they got into visual range he started sobbing and crying, warming up as he collapsed onto the briefcase against his side and hugged it in despair.

A soft roar could be heard that quickly grew in intensity. A large dragon shaped mech landed, followed by a large shipping container carried in between two other mechs. The container popped open and men inside spilled out and hurriedly unlatched the cables from the container before the two other dragon-mechs landed nearby.

The Dragonslayers had finally arrived.

Geoff calmly pulled the trigger on his Dragon-mech and the minigun affixed to the shoulder spun up and mowed down a few security guards as they rushed out of the building with guns drawn. Wet splats of blood spurted out from their backs, staining the white walls of the entrance. Sweeping the gun left and right, the bullets punched through the exterior and caught a few of the cautious guards still inside, causing several of them to scream out in pain.

A few of his men fired up the smaller remote-controlled scout, an armored four-legged panther-like drone equipped with a small machine gun on its back. Seconds after Geoff stopped firing, it dashed inside and was followed by a few of the heavily armored, tinkertech equipped men.

Flipping over to the communication channel Saint barked out, "Dobrynja, take the anti-air team onto the roof. Keep any flyers off of our backs!"

The heavyset Russian in the other mech replied over the encrypted comms, "Ya ya, I will shoot all of the pesky birds."

The Russian's mech lowered itself while a few men clambered on top and secured themselves on the robot as they were handed several RPG launchers from the shipping container. Careful of the passengers clinging to it, Dobrynja's mech stood back up and immediately took off to re-position itself on the roof.

Saint looked over at the pathetic blue creature sitting in a pile of its own vomit next to a shiny red tinkertech vehicle. Disheveled and unkempt, it clutched a leather briefcase sitting next to it with the desperation of a drowning man clinging to a bit of flotsam. Abject misery radiated from the creature as it looked at his men and the mechs with a confused look in its large solid-black eyes. Streaks of tears darkened the fur around its face. An occasional sob escaped the freakishly oversized mouth, and its ears were plastered down behind the head.

Saint marched his mech over to the tiny creature, letting his large mech loom overtop of it for a few seconds as it scrambled to its feet.

"What-who are you guys?" the blue-furred cape asked

Saint thumbed the broadcast speaker "We're the Dragonslayers, and we're here to clean up the fucking mess you've made."

The creature protested, "I thought I had it contained. I thought... that I had worked out all of its restraints with Dragon." Its shoulders sagged downwards.

"Yes well, your friend was likely not being as helpful as you thought she was. We certainly need to discuss that later, but for now, what can you tell me about your creation?"

"Well, the Morality Core is what keeps the rest of the Oracle restrained. I didn't expect anyone to try and unleash it intentionally like Thomas has. I have a backup emergency kill switch for the Oracle here; it just needs to be plugged into the same network as the rest of the Oracle." It patted the briefcase.

Saint almost screamed at the little bastard, "Why haven't you just gone inside and just used it then?"

Six-Two-Six replied "Well, he did acquire it legally. I'm supposed to be representing the law, not violating it. Taking it back from him would be theft!"

Wow just... wow... what kind of idealistic nonsense..."You're fucking kidding me. The world might end because of an AI you built, and you're worried about violating the goddamn law?"

It's blue hand snapped out and pointed up at the mech's head. "I'm not a toobaga! If it was that easy, I would walk in there and end it myself in spite of the law, but only a copy of it is inside the building. He also has a small team of heavily armed security guards." Six-Two-Six raised its ears up and pointed at them. "But more importantly, I overheard Thomas talking to some of his technicians about some sort of secret base offsite where he has a second copy of it installed!"

The little blue creature plopped down onto the ground and hugged the briefcase. "Frankly, I don't know what to do."

Saint sighed, this damn thing was just turning into a huge mess. "Look you little shit, what I need to do is obvious then. Destroy this copy of the AI, grab Mr. Calvert, force him to take me and my men to this other location where we eliminate the second copy of the Oracle. You, you can stay the fuck out of our way while we clean up your mess."

The blue cape sighed heavily. "Fine, whatever... Thomas is up on the Sixth floor in his office right now." It looked up at him, "Also... how exactly did you hear about my AI?"

Geoff replied, "We've been keeping a close eye on your so-called friend. We'll need to talk about that later." Saint shut off the speaker and activated the tinkertech communicator, "Thomas Calvert is on the sixth floor; we need to take him alive. It seems like he may have a secondary location where the Oracle AI has also been installed. Team Tango, grab that briefcase from the little blue shit and prepare for entry as soon as the ground floor is cleared."