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Annika watched the dragon dissolve with a splash; Liquidised form painting the aftermath of an anti-climactic encounter. She decided not to comment, a dip of her chin to acknowledge a job well done. Perhaps.

Her visor dimmed as the threat markers on her HUD dropped to null. Hostile entity: dereferenced. Environmental risk: low. Civilian presence: non-critical. The soundscape shifted, voices bleeding back in now that the urgency had evaporated. Explanations. Laughter, maybe. Someone asking questions she didn’t need answers to.

Instead she crouched, setting the datapad carefully against her knee. Ike and Omar descend at a silent recall. They hovered for a beat, then folded into themselves at the press of a button.

[color=#009BFF]“Good job.”[/color] She whispered, using her sleeve to wipe at a paint streak on Omar's housing. She would clean that properly later.

She exhaled, slow and measured, and stowed Omar alongside the first. The backpack settled heavier against her spine. Familiar weight, familiar order.

Around her, the scene unraveled into aftermath: the promise of cleanup crews, idle chatter, someone accepting food they hadn’t asked for. Annika registered it all distantly, like background radiation. None of it required intervention.

A demonstration, then.

She straightened, adjusting the straps of her pack until they sat just right. Her visor lifted, exposing her eyes to the open air again. The migraine warning she’d been suppressing ticked up one notch, then stabilized.

She took one last look at the empty space where the dragon had been.

[color=#009BFF]“…Inefficient,”[/color] she said quietly.