The Titan and the dragonriders

78. Old Wounds

"Alex! Emily! Stop! We don't want to let the situation escalate!" shouted John sternly, hurrying after them along with Robert, Aidan and Murtagh, with the pilot far ahead of them and his wife already grabbing one of her left wrists. Emily turned half to him and fumed up, but stopped, unlike Alex, who stubbornly continued to stagger towards the group of dragons, elves and humans. His march did not go unnoticed, of course, which is why two of the elves, whom Miller identified as Yaela and Bean, and two of the dragons, Sapphirea and Aesdol, turned to him. However, the Titan did not slow down any institutions or even voluntarily.

"What's the point of Robert? Alex is right, we need to clarify this matter once and for all before all this nonsense starts again! Do you think about what would happen if Feyth wasn't in our company? Any of these fire-breathing lizards would kill her on the spot!" Smith angrily hissed at her husband as he stared anxiously at his brother. "Violence is not the solution, Emily," John replied earnestly instead of the pilot, as he approached Aidan and Murtagh a few moments later at their height. Dorn, too, had taken a few steps in her direction, which was practically no distance for him.

Once again, the colonel raised his voice without waiting for his daughter's response.

"Alex, stop right away! We will settle this matter, but not with our fists!" "Violence is the only language these guys really understand Dad! Eragon himself said that," the golden-brown-armored titan replied, snarling loudly, underlining his point by stepping so violently on the gravel-covered ground that the small stones around his right foot rose like the water of a puddle. John's facial expression became even more serious.

In words, this time he wouldn't be able to stop his son from this stupidity so quickly.

'Stay only two options,' he quickly pondered, opting for option number one. "Aidan, immediately lock all joints in his atlas! He must stop!" he urged the AI, which immediately lit up yellow. "Understand Sir, access systems of the Atlas of Titan 08. Take control," Aidan replied, briefly glowing green before switching back to his usual blue, adding a moment later: "Take over successfully, initiate lock down sequence." Not a moment later, Alex froze in front of them in the middle of the crotch, after which the Titan uttered an angry curse and the others could finally catch up with him. Only Robert stayed a little behind with Emily to calm her down even further. "Well done, Aidan," Miller said contentedly as he came to stand next to his son along with the AI, Murtagh and Dorn.

"What's the point? Let me go Aidan! I'm just going to smash manners into the cerebellum for this arrogant pack." Nurton growled, his voice no longer had anything of his usual smoky manner, but instead resembled a mixture of smoke and roar. Exactly what John had feared. His own aggressive personality was sometimes difficult to calm down, but compared to the gold-brown armored Titan's tantrum, he was a Chihuahua and Alex an American Pitbull. A trait he shared with Emily and a consequence of Phase 1 of the Darwin Protocol. Their increased aggressiveness and very low stimulus threshold may be of enormous advantage in combat situations, but in situations like this one, extreme problems could arise.

Especially when you consider that the two were among the strongest titans.

"Sorry, sir. They don't have the rank to overturn Colonel Miller's orders," Aidan replied earnestly, briefly shining purple. "Shit on my rank!" said Nurton, upset, but it didn't help, he was stuck, trapped in his own suit.

John's logical personality quickly withdrew to make way for her father, because only she could manage to calm her son halfway. Immediately, his attitude and expression changed as he stepped in front of Alex and calmly declared: "Please calm up Alex. I know how you feel, believe me, I would love to read these arrogant bastards as much as you read the Levites, but that's not the solution! It would just stoke their anger and most likely draw other dragons to their side!" He placed his right hand on Nurton's left shoulder.